Change is hard

Tonight was the night we had to tell Jack he won't be at his school next year. He's on transfer to the school where he is currently attending. Caroline is coming into kindergarten next year and we were hoping to get her a transfer to the school where I'm at, and had started the process. However, as you all know from reading the previous entries that won't be happening so we're moving Jack back to Yale.

Tonight was kindergarten round up at my school and Jack had a Boy Scout meeting in the library. When he saw that there were kindergartners there, he panicked because Caroline was missing it. I told him it wasn't her night, but he kept asking questions about why. I kept giving him answers that were vague and avoided the point, but he was picking up on it. I said as much to Jason when I got into the car, so he decided that we would tell him tonight.

It went about as well as can be expected. Jason explained that I would soon be looking to do other things and wouldn't be at the school where we are now that much longer, and that if I left we'd have to move the kids to our home school. Of course, Jack cried a lot and was really concerned about missing his friends. I mentioned that we would be staying in the same Boy Scout troupe and that we'd be doing things with those kids. It didn't go well for a little bit, until he realized it wasn't going to change. He's still concerned about missing this one friend who really isn't that good of a friend anyway. I'm kind of glad he'll be getting away from this boy, but it's still hard. He doesn't understand that when he goes to his junior high he'll know kids from both schools.

I'm still nervous about this whole thing. When he was begging and pleading with us not to move him, I thought of my principal and how I wished she could have been there to witness it. The person who doesn't like conflict or confrontation would have had a hard time watching two parents try to convince their child that a decision this other person made was the reason he couldn't go to the school anymore.