To the Outgoing Kindergarten Moms

You made it. Your little tiny baby is graduating Kindergarten. Weren’t you just rocking him to sleep yesterday? And now he’s going to first grade! What the heck! Bet you never imagined Kindergarten in the middle of a global pandemic. But irrespective of all the precautions, he did it. And so did you. He knows so much more now than he did in August.

I’m coming to you as an INCOMING Kindergarten mom. And if I’m flat honest, I’m so scared.

I don’t know if I speak for all of the PreK moms. My family is coming from a non-traditional PreK environment — full-time ABA therapy. And look — he is SO prepared. We’ve gone over everything and then gone over it again. We know the capital and lowercase letters, we know numbers, we know how to open a chip bag, and we know how to unzip and zip our book sack and our jackets.

But what if it isn’t enough? Kindergarten feels so big. It feels so good big but also so scary big.

It’s real big kid stuff.

So tell me what I need to know since you’ve made it to the other side. Tell the good, the bad, and the ugly. What do I do to make sure he takes a nap? Or at least lays there quietly? Any tips on making friends and feeling confident and being a good human? Asking for my incoming Kindergartener and maybe myself, too?

Any tips for making mom friends? Good gracious, I’d love to make some mom friends in his class.

If I’m sounding desperate, it is because I am.

We looked at every school and then looked at them again. And we are IN LOVE with our choice. But I’m still scared. So give it to me straight, you veteran, you.

Help a mama out. Xxoo

Rebecca Autin
Rebecca is an attorney by day and a toddler wrangler by night. She is a product of divorced parents and grew up in both Thibodaux and Franklin, Louisiana. Rebecca attended Loyola University of New Orleans and Southern University Law Center. Rebecca married her high school bestie in 2012. Quinton and Rebecca went through months of infertility before giving birth to Maxwell Lincoln in 2015. In 2016, they were surprised by a baby boy due in June 2017. But, in February 2017, they suffered with incompetent cervix and delivered sweet Theodore Paul too soon. In October 2018, after an incredibly difficult pregnancy, a cerclage, and a whole bunch of bedrest, Fitzgerald Joseph was born -- a happy, healthy, and perfect rainbow. If you can't find Rebecca, you can summon her with pot of freshly brewed coffee or look for her in Target or behind the kitchen island where she is hiding from her kids with a very generous pour of red.