For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 12, 2024

Well, we all have to let go someday

This looks like a repeat of when April first entered day care. At least, this time she isn’t screaming hysterically.

Dawn looks like she is wearing one of those large t-shirt style dresses only she has washed it so many times it is stretched and uneven and so short on her like this is something she could have worn a few years ago and it would have fit well.

Elizabeth looks like she is wearing a pair of overall shorts that she outgrew a few years ago. Typically overalls come up to your chest and not to your waist.

I know the girls had decided they could not wear new clothes to the first day of school, but what about that meant wearing clothes that were old and way too small for you?

After all that fuss of no knowing what to wear, I can’t say I’m overly fond of Liz’s selection of suspender shorts pulled up higher than her belly button.

Elly has a little static cling problem, there.

These new high school kids are really smart and on the ball. Here in Canada today it is nearly the end of the second week back to school.

Even back in 1995, today would have been a Tuesday, a week after the start of school.

Was there a week long teacher’s strike in the first week of school back then?

At first glance, I thought April was wearing high heels.

“Pre-K”? We called it “nursery school”.

Well, somebody’s having a hard time letting go!

Elizabeth looks like she is wearing clothes from middle school. Not the best way to impress the high school boys. LOL

Funny, I don’t remember having any problems when beginning 1st grade. The problem came when entering 7th grade and the teacher was a family friend and instead of referring to him as I always had, I had to call him ‘Mister’ ! ! ! !

of her tight grip from April’s tiny fingers… :j

Strange, I didn’t think Elly was an over protective mom which usually results in this type of behavior from the child.

The prettiest girl in our neighbourhood was quoted as saying, “I can’t wait to start high school, where the older boys will go crazy over me too!”

It’s not Mom …..

I love how April has her leg wrapped around Elly’s for security.

I remember loving Kindergarden. All the new playmates and activities.

How frightening that day was for every child

I never went to kindergarten. Not sure whether they didn’t exist then; or we just didn’t have one in our small town.

Elizabeth, I think you have it backwards.

What the heck kind of shoes is that poor girl wearing ?

Liz would have looked better in her underwear. What IS that thing?

The year before I started school for real I was enrolled in a half-day nursery school, mornings only, three days a week. As with almost everyone, the idea was to get me used to being one kid among many, accepting non-familial authority figures, and getting used to out-of-the-house routines. My memories of that setting are very incomplete, but I do remember it fondly and was quite comfortable there. I don’t remember ever freaking out when my parents left.

I do however remember not wanting to go, mainly because I knew my brother was home watching Sesame Street and I wanted to be doing the same. Already at that ridiculously young age I would wake up in the morning and think what a drag it was that I had to go back to the grind, and looking forward to my next day off (which was never more than a day away, since I went Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). At one point I’d learned the word “plod” from a poem about dinosaurs, and I expressed my reluctance to go to school by saying it was going to be a “morning of plod” as I tried, no doubt completely ineffectively, to stall by getting ready very slowly. Cracked my mom up every time.

Love that knowing-smile on the teacher!

The five years of high school begin for liz. And yes five as there was an extra year to help kids get ready back then where Lynn lived.

Why is April wearing Elly’s heels!?

More like the other way around.

Pre K??? you mean public child care right ? ;-)

Does Canada have Head Start?

A real first serious transition is from elementary to junior high or middle school. I mean, a new school, a new type of school. It’s better if all your friends are there, so you’re facing it with friends. My o.d elementary sent its graduates to two different junior highs. Whichever one you went to depended what neighborhood you lived in. As luck would have it, most of my friends went to the other junior high, and the one I went to was full of not-so-nicekids. This was two years after we moved to the West Coast from the East Coast, so it was like moving all over again.

Looks to me like April doesn’t want to let go.

When my boys started pre-K, they couldn’t wait for us to leave. They ran into the room with hardly a look back at their poor, bewildered parents. I am glad my grandsons are doing the same!

Ironic that Elly has been on her daughters to grow up. Not so much with April, but Elly has harped on Elizabeth that she needs to start fighting her own battles as Elly will not be there to support her forever. Yet when it comes to Michael, Elly thinks he is always going to be her baby.