Support thread for parents burying their heads in sandpits with PFBs off to school

[MrsWembley]

Am I the only one, stood here looking at my DD and thinking,

'nooooooooo, you can't be ready, you can't be about to leave me forever, they can't have you, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...'

I'm fine with it, really. It's just, well, there's only three and a half weeks to go.

How have others dealt with it? How will you deal with it? How will I react to it? Glad of the peace? Sad at the thought that someone else is now teaching her? Missing her company? Grateful for the time alone with DS?

And how do people deal with school politics? And then there's all those frightful stories I've read on here about dealing with other parents!

If you've been there, please come and help us. If you too are sitting around, pretending it's not about to happen, come here to carry on the pretence.

I don't know how DS is going to do a shirt up. He can put a tshirt on and is just learning to take one off but I can't see him being able to do up buttons

I suppose if the Reception staff had a problem with helping 24 children change in and out of shirts for PE in the past they would have complained about having shirts instead of polo shirts...

can you teach him to just undo the top buttons and take it off over his head like a t-shirt?

He might be able to if the shirt is loose enough, sometimes he can't pull his arms inside a tshirt if it's too tight, and he can't do the crossed arms, over the head thing, he gets in a right pickle.

It just seems a lot to expect of a 4 year old.

Yay - photo of DD on my profile...

As for the shirt, someone somewhere suggested taking off the buttons and sewing them on the 'buttonhole' side of the shirt so they look buttoned up, then sewing velcro to actually fasten the shirt. You wouldn't have to do all of them, just one for PE days...

Waah, nobody cares!

Aw she looks adorable Galena

This is the opportunity to have some 'me' time you've been craving for years. Go out and enjoy it!

But don't forget to pick them up at the end of the day. Schools don't seem to like it if you leave them there overnight!

This thread has made me smile!
I'm a Reception teacher & honestly, really I'm telling you the truth, I swear- the children are all fine! I've been doing this job a long time & there's very few who struggle to settle. I'll bet good money that they'll all make friends & be saying ' well Mrs LadyB says....' & driving you mad with things their teachers do!
2 tips- do not cry in front of them!!
& label bloody everything( if you go in to ask the teacher to look for a sweatshirt from George that's age 4 that you havent labelled she will start muttering & turn quite angry looking!!)
Good luck!

LadyB, I promise I have labelled nearly everything. I even have iron on labels for her socks! I haven't done her cardigans yet because the hot iron needed for the iron-in tapes made her 2 pounds from sainsbo's lovely cardigan go a very peculiar colour, so I'm even going to sew in tapes to those! And if the iron on labels come off I'll sew labels into everything else too. AND I'm also going to write on the labels with laundry marker...

Is this overkill? Am I going to look like control-freak mother? Should I label her ankle splints and wheelchair too?

Probably a stupid question LadyB, but do we need to label underwear/tights/socks?

Galena I've got to be honest, I've never seen a wheelchair in the lost property box but why not, label it anyway!!
Adikia it's great when tights etc are labelled for PE day so perhaps label 1 set- normally for the 1st half term, all 30 strip completely when getting undressed for PE! It's a nightmare to get them to leave underwear on!

Your dd looks lovely galena very grown up. I'll try to uploads a pic of ds when I get home from our trip to the Lake District and I can get to the laptop.

LadyB, I feel sorry for DDs new teacher, I struggle to keep knickers (or any clothes) on her as it is, without the temptation of getting changed for PE

I think the photos of DD in her uniform are on my profile now.

Galena what a lovely photo. I feel better about black shoes after seeing your DD in hers - she looks really great.

That's a good idea about the velcro. Sort of taking inspiration from the Full Monty here, but maybe I could do the trousers as well

Adikia I think you need to make your profile public - I can't see your pictures. :(

oops, I thought I had. I think it should work now.

No, sorry... If you go to 'My Mumsnet' and then 'My profile', you don't need to fill in all the boxes, but right at the bottom it says 'Do you want your profile to be visible to other Mumsnetters?' (or something) and you need to set it to 'Yes show it to all MNetters' and then click 'save'

doh, hitting save usually helps I'm not good with computers.

Oh, she is mega-cute! What a posh uniform! Is it a private school?

yeah it is, very generous FIL sorted it out coz we didn't get any of our choices of schools and the one she was offered is in special measures and well known for having a massive bullying problems and kids not achieving expected levels.

:) Lovely FIL! I went to a private prep school (Many moons ago) and our winter uniform was dark blue pinafore, light blue shirt, beige socks, navy knickers (and yes they checked!) and a navy felt hat!

Your DD's uniform looks far more Harry Potter than mine used to be!

Hellooo everyone!

Still haven't bought uniform, so no photos from this end yet. I'll check out all yours as soon as I can get to my laptop.

Adikia, what a fab FiL! And I'm guessing his support is a good thing right now.

LadyB, thank-you for the advice. I've got a whole list of questions for DD's teacher when she comes to do the home visit but you've answered one of them already!

I think I've managed to upload a pic off my phone can someone tell me if they can see it? Sorry it's size ways I don't know how to change it. It was taken before ds got his shoes so I can't show them off yet :)

Don't think your profile is public either... follow my previous instructions...

Oh I did that galena but it mustn't have worked :(