Kid-ing with Kayla: We did it! We made it through winter break and now it’s back to school and our regular routine. This just in, mom guilt.

Why is it that every time my son returns to school I feel guilty? I wonder why I was hoping to return to routine when I had so much down time with my son before. I convince myself I didn’t make it special enough. I need to stop!

The fact is, my son thrives on routine and so do I. We both love being social and we both like staying busy. However, that didn’t stop Allan from pretending to be too sick to go to preschool this morning.

It wasn’t until he realized I knew he didn’t have any real symptoms that he admitted he just didn’t want to go.

Here’s what I did to make him for excited to return:

• I listed all of his friends and how much they would love to see him
• I packed his favorite dessert
• I made sure to make a really elaborate lunch (this won’t last because I’m too lazy for this to be an every day thing)
• I packed his bag the night before so there would be less stress in the morning
• I let him pick out his clothes
• I woke him up earlier to bathe and have more time before we left
• I let him watch a show (not sure if this is a good mom move but it helped him eat his breakfast and it worked for my son!)
• I talked about how much fun he would have at school
• I talked about how important it is to learn
• I didn’t give in to his false claims of sickness but I didn’t ignore them either, I checked for a fever and acted concerned about his health despite the fact I knew he was probably just nervous and I explained it was normal to feel that way and I still feel that way before work sometimes

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