Best Friends

“You are my best friend, Mummy.”

I wrote that in my one sentence journal back in February, recording the words Immy had said to me as I put her to bed. These simple words of an almost three year old warmed my heart.

Of course, Immy has other friends. Small people who she misses dearly when they are not at playgroup or if she is unwell and we miss a playdate or gym class. But as a three year old, these friendships are light and ever changing, as the young children involved learn to play more together than alongside each other, discovering the hard lessons of negotiation and compromise, of acceptance, exclusion and sometimes rejection. On the other hand, mama, well she is always there.

Last night I started filling out the forms for Immy to start kindy at the beginning of next year. And I got to thinking that in just a few short months there will be all of these new (to us) people who will influence her life  – teachers, peers, older buddies. No longer will I be the font of all wisdom, instead there will be a teacher who knows everything (at least in the mind of her small charges). There will be friendships with other children that I no longer have the privilege of freely observing. Her world will become more and more ‘school centred’ and less and less ‘family centred.’

There will be new best friends.

And I must admit to feeling more than a little sentimental about it all. Today I want to hold my small girl just a little bit closer as I realise the days as we know them are fewer than I dare to acknowledge.

A big change is around the corner and I must prepare my heart for it.

What were your feelings about your child taking their first big step away from home?

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7 Comments

  1. I read somewhere that once they go to school, they are never entirely yours again. It is so true and it makes me so sad. There is something wonderful about being a littleone’s whole world.
    One of the things I am grappling with in our country life experiment is the idea that if we were to continue our experiment then there is a likelyhood that my kids will need to move out straight after school finishes, (or even earlier if we needed to send them to boarding school – a real possibility). The just grow up too fast, and it’s milestones like starting school that remind us of this.

  2. Oh I know how you feel! Just filling out the forms for my eldest to start kindy next year too. Strange feeling, exciting, poignant, sad, everything all at once

    x

  3. It is wonderful and heartbreaking at the same time.

    So brilliant to see their independence growing and yet I want them to remain my little babies too.

    1. I am trying hard to see the wonderful side of it, and I know how she will love school. It just hurts to let them go x

  4. This post caught my eye, because that is exactly what my 3.5 year old said to me when she went to bed tonight. She’s been in daycare and now kindergarten for 2 whole years and so I do share her with many other people and we spend a good part of our day apart, but I’m still her best friend (for now!). I just hope that it will stay that way for a long while longer (for you too!)

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