School Drop Off

What to say to your child during drop off, especially during this hard time where you may not actually be able to accompany them inside.

So, number one, prepare them beforehand and talk to them in the car on your way over there, even before you get in the car. Number two, always validate their feelings and let them know that it’s alright to be scared, it’s alright to be sad, yeah you seem a little sad right now, you seem a little scared, starting new things can be scary.

And then even then remind them that you have trust in their teacher and that you’re confident in the teachers abilities to take care of them because if you project that you’re nervous about letting them go to their teacher; they’re going to pick up on that and they’re not going to want to trust their teacher. So, you want to let them know “your teachers here to help take care of you, if you’re feeling sad or you may ask your teacher for a hug or you may ask your teacher for a break.” Again, it is really important not to disappear and forget to say goodbye or think it’s better not to say goodbye. You always want to say goodbye and let them know mommy daddy caregiver will come back, we always come back.

Say your child really struggling screaming you’re going to say, “I know it’s really hard, yes it is really hard, your teachers are here for you” and you’re not gonna linger you’re not gonna make it ha. rder for them you’re going to project the confidence and let the teacher take over, they have years of experience and I’m sure there’s lots of tricks up their sleeve to help your child feel more comfortable and get to that point where they feel safe.

Regarding follow-up questions from yesterday‘s post about what you should do when you pick your kids up from school. Number one thing, do not bombard them with questions, don't say like; how was your day? What happened tell me everything... because your kid is processing everything and when they get picked up it’s really overwhelming and they’re trying to think about what happened that day. So, most of the time kids just want to be quiet or they just will respond with; it was fine, it was good, it was OK. This is because they are not ready to answer your questions, and then most of the time I will bet you they’re ready to tell you about the day when right when you’re putting them to bed. It’s not a stall mechanism it’s because that’s when they want closure so move your bedtime routine a little bit earlier and that’s when you have closure and you talk about your day, “oh tell me something that you enjoyed,” “tell me something that was hard for you at school,” “tell me about something you want to talk about.”