It happens.
There is this amazing clock in every kid's body, I've realised, that goes tick tock tick tock at unexpected intervals, that would remind the kid to rebel when it's time to do so. I've experienced it with Joey during her preschool days, and I am not surprised that Jayne is showing signs of her amazing clock acting up.
Jayne generally likes going to school. She speaks fondly of her teachers, her classmates and the things she does in school. Basically, after the initial 2 weeks of transiting her from a life of rotting-at-home to full-day childcare, she has been very positive and happy about this thing called going-to-school. School is fun - Lots of singing, dancing, playing, and she comes home with her hair tied up in lovely styles everyday.
But the last two weeks have not been easy. It first began with her feeling very reluctant about going to school in the morning. We would literally have to drag her to the school, and spend a good five minutes toggling with her at the gate as she makes her fifth attempt to hug and kiss us goodbye, which was just a ploy to cling on to us and not let go. Then one of the teachers would pry open her fingers and pull her away from us as she sobs her heart out. It was heart-wrenching for us on the first day, but that was it.
Then the Form Teacher started to feedback to me that she wasn't willing to eat her lunch and she had to personally feed her spoon by spoon. The teacher thought it was very strange, because she would usually feed herself and finish all her food fast. When it came to nap time, she sometimes refused to sleep, and would just lie on the mattress staring at the ceiling, or sometimes, start crying because she said she missed us. Sigh.
Heard too many horror stories about childcare centres, so I asked her many, many times if she was unhappy to go to school because her classmates beat her, quarrel with her, or were the teachers very fierce to her, or did something to frighten her. She said everything was fine - Nobody bullied her or scolded her, but she just kept missing us the whole day. I confirmed with her teacher who also said that nothing much happened in school and Jayne gave the same set of answers when she asked her why she didn't want to be in school. We were both bewildered.
The last few days especially had been really bad because she would start worrying about school the night before! Near bedtime, she would come squirming like a worm and snuggle up to me whispering, "Mummy, can I don't go to school tomorrow? I want to stay at home." When I told her every kid goes to school and that school is fun, the big, fat tears would come rolling down. School was supposed to be fun and enriching, but it was stressing her out so badly that she started worrying the night before?! Mind you - She's only 4!
On some days, we indulge in her and allowed her to stay at home when my mother-in-law is free to look after her. You should see how the countenance changed drastically from one of total despair to sparkling eyes and ear-to-ear grin. But I also know that this is not the best solution - Giving in to her demands would make life easier for me - I don't have to deal with tantrums early in the morning when I am already rushing to go to work - But that would only make it harder for me to get her back into the routine of going to school everyday! That is the reason why I cross my heart and drag her to school as much as I can, even though the battle's a tough one.
Not funny, babe.
I can only hope and pray that this is just another passing phase in Jayne's life, and that this business of not wanting to go to school will stop somehow. Now that she is still in preschool, it didn't seem that serious to miss a day or two of school, but if I do not nail the problem now, I might have a bigger problem on hand in a few years' time. Nope, I am not allowing that to happen. At all.
Sorry babe, but you are going to school tomorrow.
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