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Jul 9, 2018

Preparing for kindergarten the next day

Preparing for kindergarten the next day photo wrote about all the things needed for daycare in Japan and it reminded me of when I first met my stepdaughters. They were in kindergarten, 5 and 6 years old, and I was new to the whole parent side of Japanese youchien. I had taught at a kindergarten plenty of times before, admiring the way all the students would line up to wash their hands before class, change their shoes from outdoor shoes to the indoor ones, some kids even changing clothes if they were too dirty. I never even thought about the fact that these children's things had to all be provided by the parents. Then I met my hard working single father(HWSF) eventual husband and it opened my eyes to just how much is expected from parents here. HWSF would come home from work around 9 pm and pick up the girls from the babysitter. He would then spend nearly thirty minutes going through the things the girls brought home from school and needed to take with them the next day. There were always notes from the teachers letting him know what they were doing at the school to allow him to prepare accordingly. For example, sports day practice meant an extra pair of clothes, two towels for sweat, and that he could put sports drink in their water bottles for some needed electrolytes. He would need to wash their chopsticks, wash their clothes for the next day and stamp saying he read the note. Then HWSF would check to see that they had everything from tissue packets to facial masks in their little yellow bags. It was nights when they needed something extra from the norm that caused problems. Once they needed gloves to pull weeds, so we went around town trying to find a store selling them that was still open past 9 pm. Another time it was to replace the lent emergency underwear. Usually, the emergency extra clothes the school lends out to kids who go through their own just needs to be washed but because it was underwear it needed to be replaced completely. I think this is the one time where disposable underwear would be great. But it meant another search for a store selling what we needed late at night. Anyone not in a major city knows how hard it can be to find late night stores. But HWSF would do it and the girls would be off to the babysitter in the morning fully prepared with all they needed for kindergarten.

edthethe

edthethe

American step mom with beautiful Brazilian babies. Raising them in Japan. I'm a crafter too


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