If You Cried at School Conferences, You Aren’t Alone

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It’s spring conference season- whether you have already had meetings with your kids’ teachers or are getting ready for them, I want to admit to you that I cried at school conferences again… in fact, I have cried at every conference I’ve attended so far. Every. Single. Time.

Now, the most recent times I can blame on hormones (I have been pregnant or very newly postpartum for fall and spring conferences this year), but the truth is that I have been emotional in a different way each conference, and those emotions were definitely not all hormone driven. Which is why I thought I’d share these experiences. Surely I’m not the only one who has felt some of these things, right? (Please, please let that be true!) So…

I have cried at school conferences due to the sheer newness of my kid being at school– at the realization that someone spends almost as many waking hours with my kid as me. We waited to start preschool with my oldest until he was four and this was a huge transition. The idea that suddenly someone else knew things about my child that I might not was really hard and just gut punched me in a way I did not expect. Apparently the teachers do expect it, as they had kindly placed a box of tissues close at hand. 
I have cried at school conferences for the exact opposite reason as well- not because the teachers knew things about my child that I did not, but because they saw the same struggles I had seen in certain areas and finding out that my son needed more help in certain areas than I could give him on my own. I am so thankful for the tears shed for this because they were out of a recognition that I was not in this alone and it was a catalyst to connect me to resources I could not have easily accessed on my own.

I have cried at school conferences seeing the sweetest art pieces and school projects that they save for conference time instead of sending home in backpacks or leaving in cubbies.
I have cried tears of realizing that other struggles and challenges are a normal part of growth. I realized the days are gone when what these kids needed from me was generally as simple as eating, sleeping, or a diaper change, and that their needs will just continue to get more complicated.

Finally, I have cried the best tears of all this year- tears of joy and pride at the progress I have seen since that first school conference. It was at a conference that it really clicked just how much I was watching my son grow and learn so much so fast this past year and I am so thankful for all the tears I know I’ll shed in conferences to come, because before you know it, the times I cried at school conferences will be long gone and the days of college applications will be just around the corner.

6 COMMENTS

  1. As a school teacher, I just want you to know it is totally okay to cry at conferences. No matter what reason.

  2. I for sure cried at my first conference. Proud tears, mixed with a little shock and fear. It was a roller coaster for sure.

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