It's a phase, right?

Ok, I do realize that a parent-teacher conference for a 3 year-old is not the pressure cooker event that it will eventually be when he starts getting grades, but it was exciting nonetheless. It was a little weird to be on the other side of the coin, listening to all the advice I once gave my parents. (For those who don't know, I was an elementary school teacher for 9 years before my son came along). My little Monkey, as I affectionately call my 3 year-old son, has been a bit ambivalent about the whole school thing from the start. It's not that he doesn't want to be apart from me, he just wants to be able to do his own thing. I know I'll be grateful for this independence one day, but today it was still hard to hear how he has trouble following directions. Doubly hard, I know how difficult school can be for kids that don't follow directions. So, we will continue to work on it at home, and hope that much of it is this 3 year-old phase of testing all of his limits so much of the time. And, by the way, I can tell you mamas with the older children are grinning right now, remembering how your kids tested you, too. I will get through this, right?