Parenting isn't for Sissies!

Sending our children to nursery school has been an... interesting experience. Our daughter screamed and cried when being dropped off at nursery school right up until her little brother started demanding more and more attention at home. She was almost 5 then. Daily screaming and crying right up until almost 5 years old. Now, those of you who know me, know that I'm a sap and can cry while watching a car commercial so while trying to keep calm on the outside watching my little angel cry on a daily basis because she did not want me to leave her was no easy task.

I always assumed it was because she was adopted. Now, I don't usually think about the fact that our daughter is adopted. It rarely crosses my mind. But, sometimes I am forced to wonder if certain behaviors or reactions are directly related to that day that we ripped her away from the only life she knew, took everything away from her, and tried to substitute it with our love. Today, I do not believe that the day she was abandoned was the greatest trauma in her life. The most traumatic event in her life was the day she was adopted. As the parent of an adopted child and a non-adopted child I have had the luxury of being able to compare the experiences on occasion (to those of you out there that told us we could not love an adopted child as much as we would love "our own"--you could not be more wrong! HA!). I have always thought that when leaving her at nursery school she was experiencing some sort of separation anxiety or something.

Fast forward to our son. Almost two years old. He is the only child in his nursery school class that screams when being dropped off. The other kids walk in as if they own the place. He screams bloody murder and the tears...OH MY GOODNESS the tears! It had nothing to do with being adopted...it is us.

It is at these times that I realize I just don't have the backbone it takes to be a parent...Parenting isn't for sissies and I am the biggest sissy of them all! I guess my kids know it and are using it against me :-)