Two Months of Tears

Sadie with Sister Stinson, the Primary President.

With the start of the new year the Primary President in our ward gave us the option of moving Sadie up to primary even though she technically missed the cut-off by three weeks.  For the past year and a half we've worked to get her to go to nursery but with no real success.  We've been patient and reassuring, but the second we even thought about leaving she would go into complete panic mode.

So, we decided to take the primary offer with hopes of finding success.  However, Sadie had other ideas.  She sobbed and sobbed through the first week.  Finally after 45 minutes I went and sat with her.  The second week parents were invited for the first half, so again, she only had to endure an hour - all of which she cried through.  By the third week, her tears started on the drive to church.  She kept begging, "No, Sadie need go home. Want Mommy!"  That's the week my tears started, too.

I knew I was on the verge of giving up.  However, I also knew that with a new baby on the way there was zero possibility I could handle three kids for all three hours of church.  And, I knew it would be easier for Sadie to adjust before the new baby came rather than feeling displaced by the baby's arrival.  Also, I kept thinking, "How is she ever going to attend Kindergarten if she can't go to two hours of primary with us so nearby?"  So, Ben gave me a pep talk and he started taking her to primary instead.

That fourth week was much better.  She still cried during the opening and music time, but she was happy as could be during her class.  Yes!  Her teacher, God bless her, started keeping Sadie in the classroom when all the other children were in singing time because she was happier in the smaller group setting.  The fifth week we missed due to an illness.  And the sixth, seventh, and eighth weeks were similar to the fourth - tears on the drive, sobbing for the first hour, but content by the end.

Finally after two months of tears we had a break through.  Sadie made it an entire Sunday without any crying! Yes, yes, yes!!  Since then things have continued to improved, and she now attends singing and sharing time, too.  She is even sad when I pick her up at the end of the two hours.  She talks the whole way home (with her limited vocabulary) about the songs they sang, who cried, the craft projects they did, and about her dear teachers - Sister Waters and Sister Stintson.  Whom, by the way, I pray for every night and thank Heavenly Father for!

It's really not easy to know what to do as a parent.  I always thought it was best to be as loving and attentive as possible, but I think Sadie would have still been sitting with us when she was 13 if I had continued as before.  Sadie is so pleased with herself and I'm so happy that she's made this step towards being more independent.  It was a torturous two months but well worth it in the end!