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It’s back-to-school time! Madame moms are shopping for back-to-school clothes, setting the alarm clocks to get the kids out of their groggy morning routines, and yes, some mothers are shedding a tear or two. After a few months of juggling vacations, camp and the lazy, hazy days of summer, of course we want our children to be educated, socially adept and out of our hair. So why do we feel that tug in our hearts when sending them off to school?

No matter how old they get, we always want our babies to be our babies. We’re so excited when our toddler learns to dress himself or when our little girl can go to the refrigerator and grab her cup of milk without our help…what parent doesn’t love when her child flexes a bit of independence? But there are certain events that signify that our children are actually separate people and it can be a shock to any mom or dad. Sending your child off to school is one of those monumental moments during which the apron strings are broken and you’ll never really get to tie them again.

So what is a weepy parent to do? Being the mom to a daughter about to enter pre-school, I’ve been through a few years of sending her to nursery school and daycare and a few classes at our local YMCA. While I’ve never had the full-on breakdown–mainly because I’ve been blessed to have my own mother as a caregiver for my daughter–I have had many moments when I said to myself: “Oh my goodness I just left my child with a building full of strangers!”

Here are a few tips for moms who need to beat the back-to-school blues:

Never let them see you sweat.

The kids, I mean. If your child sees you nervous about the experience, they are likely to feed off of your energy and be scared for no reason.

Put things in perspective.

Take some peace of mind in the fact that every child on earth, unless he or she is home-schooled, has to go to school. All the kids are feeling the back-to-school jitters, all kids are going to go through new and different social experiences and hopefully, all children will adjust in time.

Get comfortable with the school and teachers.

Ease your mind by visiting the school. If you can, take a trip there before classes start and make a trip one day during the regular school day. You’ll get to see the normal flow of the school and feel comfortable with the practices and procedures that your child may be going through every day. My daughter’s school gave us a DVD of a normal day at school as well as a student performance, so we could watch it together. This was very comforting to us both!

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