1st Day of School

4am. That's when Quinn first asked if it was time to go to school. I knew she would be up early, but 4 o'clock! At least she went right back to sleep. A blink later and it was 7:30am and Quinn comes bounding onto the bed ready to go. She had a huge smile on her face..., absolutely glowing with excitement. I got all excited as well - I know how much she loves school, and I was really looking forward to getting back into the routine. Things were great until we walked into the classroom.

It's hard for me to tell this story without going back to last year and telling you all about a friend she made and the trouble it caused after she started spending time at her house. This girl's mom and I would always arrive and leave at the same time, so we naturally started talking to each other on the way in and out. Once we were comfortable with each other, we set up a play date for the girls. Now, I could get really into this story, but it's late..., so lets just say that this mom never says "no" to her children. She gives them anything and everything they ask for. Well, Quinn liked this. Quinn liked this a lot. In fact, she liked it so much, that she started telling my wife and I that, "She's the nice one and we're mean." She wanted to go over to her house every day. Of course, I didn't let her go to her friends house every day, which of course made me even meaner. What really made matter worse was when this woman would walk into the classroom at school, my daughter would run over to her and ask if she could come over, and this woman would say, "Sure..., it's okay with me."

Doesn't she know the correct answer is, "Oh, I don't know. I think you should ask your father." Or, "That's up to your dad. Why don't you ask him." So now, when I said no, Quinn would cry and cry and cry. Cry all the way to the car. Cry all the way home. All that crying isn't good for daddy's blood pressure. It would just get me upset, so when we got home, I usually sent her to her room - where she would usually fall asleep because she was tired - which is also part of the reason for the crying.

Anyway...

I cut way back on visits as the year went on, and this summer, we hardly saw them at all. So on Quinn's first day of school, guess what..., she runs over to this woman, asks her if she can come over - Mom says, "Sure" - Dad says, "No" - Quinn starts crying - I carry her to the car. It's as if the summer never even happened.

As if that's not bad enough. I drove right from the school to the GAP to buy my wife a gift to celebrate her first days back at school and Quinn throws a fit in the store. I'm talking, one of those pick-her-up-and-carry-her-out-of-the-store-over-my-should fits. She hits me as I'm strapping her back in her car seat, then screams AS LOUD AS SHE CAN, "Daddy, you're mean." I look her dead in the eye and tell her that now, she can't see her friend all next week. This, of course, makes her scream even louder. I get her home and tell her to go to her room. She says no, and starts screaming again. I say, "Unless you want to start losing other privileges, you'll go to your room. I'll even let you pick what I take away next." She got the point, and was asleep in her room within minutes.

I must be getting better at this daddy thing, because I never really lost my composure this whole time. A couple of years ago, and I would have been screaming right back at her. I was proud of myself for that, but I was upset that she pissed all over what should have been a great first day at school.

I'm going home now and having a glass of wine.