Jerral's 1st Day at School...

7 Apr 2009. this is the first day of Jerral's Childcare class. For the first time in his life, Jerral will be away from the comforts and familiarity of his relations and be looked after by total strangers.

The morning started off well enough, as Jerral reached the centre around 9am and immediately set out to enjoy himself at the playground in the school yard. After abit of playing and story reading by the teachers, it was time to adjourn for a morning tea break. And it was during the tea break, whilst Jerral was happily munching some apples, that Mommy and Daddy snucked away from the room and hid themselves outside the door.

The inevitable explosion came minutes later when Jerral finished his apples, looked around and suddenly realised that his parents were nowhere in sight. He immediately broke down and started crying and yelling ‘Ma Ma’ and ‘Pa Pa’. The teachers started to console the little one as he stood crying forlornly by diverting his attention with toys, books and other activities which only worked for a short time whilst Jerral was distracted before he started wailing away again.

Mommy and Daddy stood outside the door for an hour, fighting down urges to rush back into the room and sneaking little peaks through the windows, watching the cycle of crying and distraction, before finally leaving the centre, heartbroken.

The rest of the day was spent worrying and turning themselves into a bunch of wracked nerves as Mommy and Daddy imagined all sorts of bad scenarios, wondering whether Jerral was inconsolable, thinking that he had been abandoned; will the other children pick on him as he was the smallest baby in the class, will the teachers understand his gestures and know what he wants, will he be able to eat/drink/sleep surrounded by unfamiliar faces and so on. Matters were not helped when the teacher gave Mommy a call after lunch reporting that Jerral had spend the morning crying and had just fallen asleep in the midst of having his lunch, in between bouts of tears and spoonfuls of porridge.

When the time came to pick Jerral up, Mommy and Daddy rushed down to the centre to find the little one happily enjoying himself in the play yard pushing a tricycle around. It would seem that after his nap, Jerral has adapted better and was able to partake in most of the afternoon activities. Though Daddy could still see evidences of the morning’s crying in the dried tear streaks on Jerral’s cheeks and red rimmed eyes

All in all, it was a traumatic day for Jerral, Mommy and Daddy, though a necessary one as it was past time for Jerral to be in childcare, to learn to interact and socialise with outsiders. Just as well that the first day is now over and hopefully after a few more days, Jerral would grow more accustomed to childcare.