Monday, April 2, 2012

woe is me, the mother of henry

virtually every weekday morning, greg wakes up first, makes some oatmeal, drinks his coffee, then wakes me up.  i get out of bed stealthily without waking up henry who is inevitably there.  i take my shower, get ready.  by the time i get out of the bathroom, about twenty five minutes later, henry is up.  greg leaves for work soon after, trying to be at his desk by 7:30.

i'm always selfishly hopeful that henry will still be asleep when i come out to eat my breakfast.  i could just sit, eat, drink my tea, listen to the news, check my email.  it's only happened about once or twice.  so it just goes to figure that it would happen again today when we have to be somewhere.  rather than enjoying the time to myself i kept an eye on the clock, recalculating the timing of everything so that we would be out the door and to the school in the rather generous preferred arrival window of 8:15 to 9:00.  i finally decided to do something useful with my time and fold laundry, which was just the ticket.  the mere act of lifting a crumpled shirt with the good intention of bringing some order to our home was enough to wake him, as i assumed it might be.  once henry was awake, it was not difficult to get william out of bed.  i tried simultaneously to subtly hurry breakfast along while trying to stuff them full of enough food that they would not appear too eager at henry's first official snack time (a mixed success-- henry threw most of his only piece of buttered chocolate chip bread on the floor while william took thirds).  we were out the door by around 8:30, back home before 11.  we stayed for some free play time in the morning, snack time, and outdoor time.  once i had them in their coats and hats (another cold day) it wasn't worth getting settled back inside for another half hour-- we weren't planning on staying for lunch-- maybe tomorrow.

i was happy to be home.  i realize i need the easy transition into this new situation as much as henry does.  basically because it became clear to me today that henry, in a situation where the teacher-to-child ratio is anything other than 2 (or more) teachers to 1 henry, is going to:

*get himself into trouble
*get himself hurt
*get lost

any or all of the above-- it's just a matter of when, how often, and to what degree.  it's not them so much.  it's him.  now i just need to impart my, what i believe to be, rational fear, to his school.  can't they give him some 1:1 care?  they do it in other institutions.  if not, can we put him in a helmet and some body armor, with a roaming device?

less invasive suggestions?  reassurances?  i'm listening...

2 comments:

Leslie said...

He's just a boy! Sounds like William was not so adventurous, but Henry will be fine. They get hurt, they learn not to do it again, or how to do it better the next time. Don't worry, I'm sure the teachers will have him turned into a regular Danish boy in no time! :)

greg|regan said...

thanks leslie! i'm banking on them turning him into a proper danish boy!