Friday, I took Luna for her kindergarten assessment. Our town does this in the spring to collect paperwork and arrange for the kids to have hearing testing, balance, fine and gross motor skills, language, etc. tested. She was very excited about the whole thing and within 30 minutes we were done and ready to go out to lunch (at Friendly’s of course, complete with Ice Cream)
And then the Insanity started.
What? You have not heard of the Kindergarten Insanity? Ah, let me explain.
Once your child realizes Kindergarten (with the Capital K) is coming, the insanity begins. They alternate between wanting to embrace the future and be a "big kid" and wanting to stay right where they are. In one minute, they could be running around independent and free. In the next, they are begging for hugs and snuggles and crying like a toddler. This is the start of Kindergarten Insanity. Being a young child, they can’t understand the subtle shades of grey that exist in our worlds. They understand a binary world of black and white. When you go to Kindergarten (this large abstract concept of Big Kids), you have to act differently, you will have new friends and you will be left in an alien world with out your parents. When you go to Kindergarten, you are no longer a Little Kid and you won’t get hugs and snuggles and people will expect you not to cry and you might even have to clean up your room!
The binary of their brains and the difficulty in accepting that they don’t suddenly become a new person brings on the Kindergarten Insanity. Sadly, it will last until September, when she realizes that life isn’t all that different and she really doesn’t lose all of her little kid ways… But until then? The Kindergarten Insanity continues!
BTW I am done panicking over the whole gifted thing. A few friends have given me the "oh, how bragging of you" look when I explained it, and then I had to explain all of her emotional issues that go with this. I am still concerned, but I will certainly be her advocate.