In our house, the year doesn’t end when we reach December 31. It ends tomorrow. When my daughters finish Kindergarten and 3rd grade. When they have to say goodbye to their teachers and friends and leave school premises for the last time in two and a half months. Ahead awaits 10 weeks of me and them, ten weeks of enjoying the summer together, 10 weeks of adventures and ten weeks of trying to sneak a bit of work in whenever a few minutes of quiet time comes my way. 

The end of the year is an emotional time in our house, and as we get closer, the number of tears cried each day is rising drastically. Where I grew up, you would stay together with your teacher and classmates for years. The same faces, the same friends, the same cliques and problems occurring year after year. Where my daughters grow up, it’s different. And though new teachers and mixing classes has a lot of positive outcomes and might seem like a very small thing to deal with when you think about it as an adult, for a soon-to-be six-year-old, having to say goodbye to your teachers is like having to say goodbye to a family member that has watched over you every single day for the last year. It’s heartbreaking. And something you have to live through and deal with.

So I’ve tried to be the most patient mother possible, and have had a lot of little conversations with my two eldest daughters about saying goodbye and hello and being willing to add new people to your extended family. Little speeches about trying to be open to new things while appreciating the old, that it’s normal and okay to be sad and upset and about swimming in the sea every day, laying on a blanket in our garden in Denmark and do nothing but look up in the clouds and eating ice cream all summer long. I’ve tried not to get annoyed when a simple request like getting dressed has resulted in a major meltdown and have failed when impatience made me yell when I shouldn’t have. Sometimes reality bites and even mothers run out of patience. And while this last full day of school passes by way too quickly and I try and work my way through a very long to-do list while listening to nursery rhymes and drinking cold coffee all I want is this year to come to an end, so tomorrow at noon, we can begin a new one.