Six months, gone in the blink of an eye. Six months I've had the pleasure of spending every waking moment with Jasmine and just like that it's over!
3rd September 2020 came around so fast, the week leading up to Jasmines first day back to school was so very intense for both of us. Lets rewind a few weeks when the grey cloud started looming over our heads, school was back on the horizon, for most families it means early mornings, school runs in the rain and homework at the weekends, for us; it not only meant those things but, a very unsettling feeling that just sits in your stomach from the moment your child has left your care until the second you get them back. The closer to the end of August we got the more intense these feelings became.
Jasmine had only been at her new school since January after having a terrible experience at her last school, she barely had chance to settle in then we were on full lockdown for six months, sending her into the unknown and hoping for the best was easier said than done. I started to order supplies of medications, creams and alternative milk for school, hunted for uniforms, shoes and a lunchbox and made an appointment with the doctor. Our doctor was fabulous giving us little tips to try and overcome our anxieties and listening to Jasmine for 45minutes talking about her worries and concerns about going back to school and being with out me, Jasmines biggest fears were having an allergic reaction and me not getting to the ambulance at school in time and also getting bullied for her allergies (this happened in a previous school) not to mention the dreaded Covid-19 looming over us all. Jasmine was very scared about how school would look and if the teachers would administer her medicine should she require it without being scared of coming next to her because of social distancing. As a parent watching my little seven year old in such distress about going back to school literally broke me. I started having panic attacks, my anxiety was through the roof, I was throwing up, suffering migraine attacks and trying my best to hold it altogether for Jasmines sake. Fast forward a few days and I knew I had to pull it together, sometimes the most basic coping techniques seem so far from our reach when we are panicking. I started to de -catastrophise situations for myself and with Jasmine, writing down the worst we thought would happen, making a plan in case the worse did happen and what was the best outcome from the situation. This really helped us. We also bought some worry dolls from Amazon, in theory they were fantastic little things, in reality they were scary spooky little dolls that gave Jasmine nightmares! Safe to say we stopped using them after day two. We got a treadmill to increase our activities on rainy days and that's helped us a lot. We have labelled, checked expiry dates and packed all Jasmines medication together for school so we know everything is in there and everything works. We planned lunches together for her snazzy bento box and spoke about how she would now have lunch in her class room and it would be a little different to usual but more safe. I emailed school and her new teacher rang me the day before Jasmine was due to start and it turns out she also has anaphylaxis to a lot of the same things Jasmine has so in a weird way I found that very comforting as did Jasmine.
The night before school started I was up from 2am I couldn't sleep, Jasmine woke at 4:30 her stomach was hurting, she was clammy and nervous, so we went downstairs, talked, watched TV, then packed her lunch, made breakfast and got ready for school. We got into the playground as instructed at 8:40am, all parents were adhering to social distancing, it was a little eerie the distance between everyone, there was that grey cloud again, hanging over the school, we were anticipating the door opening and when it did we saw a smiling teacher, without a mask and there was a wave of relief across most parents faces, it looked somewhat normal, the kids all bundled into school and looked happy to see each other again. I kissed Jasmine goodbye and went off to the car where I blubbered all the way home, my stomach was in knots the whole day, anticipating the phone call from school, (I hadn't missed that feeling)but there wasn't one. I was the first in the playground to pick her up and was so relieved when she told me she had a great day!
To all you parents sending your children back to school on Monday, I wish you the best of luck, remember your children's care plans and medicines and ensure the teachers know what to do in an emergency. Good luck and fingers crossed your little ones all come home as happy as mine did!!
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