First Day of Kindergarten: A Therapist Mom on Fear, Affirmations & Letting Go

His hand squeezed mine at the kindergarten door. "I'm a little scared," he said. Here's what I told him and what I didn't. As a therapist and a mom of two, I don't always agree with myself. My mom heart wanted to fix his fear, turn around, go home. The therapist in me knew that wouldn't help him.In this episode: the affirmations we've been saying since preschool (te lo juro, the cutest thing you'll hear all week), why I don't love affirmations for adults but I'm all-in for kids, the alarm clock shock of going from private-practice flexibility back into a school routine, and the moment I realized my job as his mom is shifting.....not ending, shifting.I also talk about my village, the friends who checked in, sent first-day pictures, and one who doesn't even have kids but showed up anyway to take pictures and hold my hand through it. Not the Pinterest version of a village. The real one.If your kid is heading back to school scared, nervous, or some combination of excited and terrified: you're not alone, and it's not your job to take the fear away.