Very recently, my son had to say goodbye to the daycare that had been taking care of him since he was just a little baby of two months. He’s officially qualified for public 4K, so now we can finally say goodbye to monthly tuition payments that were almost as much as our mortgage. It’s still insane to me that in this country, a bunch of billionaires have convinced a large portion of the population that this is somehow the better way to live. His preschool took care of him, educated him, and helped shape him into a better kid, but all of that came at a huge financial cost.

He started there at just two months old in the baby class, which they called the Tadpoles. He was so tiny and confused at first, but he eventually grew to love it and bonded really well with his teachers, Miss Keke and Miss Kristina. I’m sure he probably thought of them as extra mommies in a way. That was probably my favorite stage, especially because the daycare app constantly kept us updated with pictures.

Then, once he started learning how to walk, he moved up to the Infant Two class, which they called the Butterfly Room. I’m not sure why they didn’t stick with the frog theme, but what do I know? He actually really disliked that class, and I later heard that one of the two main teachers ended up getting fired about a year later. It makes me wonder if something was going on behind the scenes that we didn’t know about. I don’t think it was anything criminal or dangerous, but it still makes you curious.

After that, he moved into the toddler class and had a much better experience. I think he was starting to miss some of the friends who had already moved ahead of him, so settling into the new class became easier. Dropping him off every morning also became a lot less stressful. That was also when he first got to enjoy Pizza Fridays through Papa Johns. It was only two dollars for two slices of pizza, and I always appreciated Fridays because it meant I didn’t have to pack him a lunch.

Then came 2K, which he really enjoyed thanks to teachers like Miss Lindsay and Miss Michaela. He had a few rough days here and there, but he became obsessed with the dinosaur toys and really loved show and tell. This was also around the time he started potty training after Christmas, and honestly, he struggled with it quite a bit. During 2K it was still okay for him to wear pull-ups, but the school made it clear that he had to be fully potty trained before entering 3K.

That turned out to be a little exaggerated, kind of like when my teachers used to insist that cursive writing would be mandatory in high school. He still had accidents from time to time, but after Christmas we switched him over to thinner underwear, and that seemed to help a lot. He went from having accidents every other day to barely ever having one at school.

His last day there was the Friday before Memorial Day. It honestly wasn’t as emotional as I expected it to be, but I do regret that he won’t get to spend another year in what they call the Dinosaur class alongside some of his original friends. His best friends seem to be three kids named Trey, Grey, and Dax. Since we originally picked this daycare because it was close to my wife’s work, it’s pretty unlikely that any of them will end up attending the same elementary school anyway, so we probably would have gone through this same separation all over again when he turned five. I’m glad we put him through daycare overall, but I had almost forgotten how much I dislike dealing with school administrators. I thought they could be frustrating when I was in high school, but even at the preschool level they can sometimes be incredibly strict or strangely tone deaf when it comes to real-life situations.