Sometimes a seemingly happy milestone can feel like ‘the 'worstest day ever’

BY EILEEN BRADY
THE NEWS JOURNAL OF WILMINGTON, OHIO ​

It was a tearful morning Wednesday in Wilmington's kindergarten classrooms as 5- and 6-year-olds released the secure grips of their parents and started their first day of 13 years of public education.
The tears, however, didn't belong solely to the children.
Their parents were also feeling the full effects of separation anxiety, handing over their babies to strangers for an entire day, which would be followed by another entire day, followed by another entire day ..
My daughter, who is 4, wasn't among them, so I was not one of the shell-shocked faces leaving the elementary schools. I felt spared. 
But the majority of her little friends are a year older than she is, so we know many of those sweet kindergarten faces, and I enjoy the friendship of their mothers.
Over and over, they have warned me: “Prepare yourself now. It’s awful.”

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