Mondays Suck When You Don't Like School

My daughter didn't want to go to school today. She says she's "bored." She cried. She says she misses her best friend, who's in the other class. She says she doesn't get to draw enough, or play enough. "All we do all day long is read, read, read."

My son looks small and vulnerable in the back seat of the car at 7:30 AM. "I miss my friends," he says quietly. "That's all I want. My friends."

I know how he feels. I know that feeling of being new, of feeling tentative, of not having an ally. I wonder if we made a bad decision. Can the education at Private School be so different than that at Public School? Isn't the social thing most important at this age? And maybe it was my daughter we should have sent this year! Should we have? She's so artistic and creative and sensitive. What was I thinking? And why does she hate reading so much? Is there something wrong with her? With them? No, it's The System. Maybe I'll just drive myself to both schools, pick them up, and say, To hell with the whole thing. I'll teach them at home.

I second-guess myself into tears. I wish I smoked.