J has started nursery one day a week and is also doing settling-in sessions. He's not always too happy about it. I arrive at nursery to collect him and see J in floods of tears.
Me: Hello!
Sandy (nursery assistant): It's your Daddy!
J looks up, still sobbing and reaches out for me.
Me: It's OK, it's OK. It's Daddy!
Sandy: He's been really good today...
Me: I was worried because he was so upset when I dropped him off this morning.
Sandy: He was, but after a bit he played with some toys, spent some time outside and was generally OK. (to J) Weren't you?
J is a little calmer now.
Me: I'm glad. It's difficult when the only thing you see is tears.
Sandy: He has been having a nice time. We even took a picture.
Me: You did?
She heads into a nearby room and retrieves a polaroid.It shows J concentrating hard as he stands at a table smearing red cornflour paste everywhere. It's quite a thing to see him through another person's eyes, getting on with things in his own time, quite separate from Mummy and Daddy.
Me: Wow, look at that.
Sandy: Yeah, he had already upended a bowl of green cornflour on the other side of the table. You can just about see it...
She points and then proudly holds up the red top he was wearing this morning, covered in green paste.
Sandy: I think he really enoyed himself.
Me: Looks like it.
Later, at home.
W: Do you think they took that picture just to reassure us he's OK while he's there?
Me: It worked.
W: True. So now it's just us who have to get used to missing him.
We're still working on that one.
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