difficult start to 1st grade

I'm not quite sure if it started as more my problem that the muss', but 1st grade is getting off to a rough start.

The day the class lists were posted on the school doors I zoomed by on my way home from work to check them out. I figured I could take the muss up later and she would be none the wiser that the momma already knew. Well, it was grim. All but one of her best buddies from last year were in the other class. Even worse, all the moms I had become friends with were in the other class. I was beside myself. I think I may even have had a panic attack right there at the door to the school. It is all a blur, I don't quite remember.

I went home and put on a happy face and decided I wasn't even going to bring up the class list issue. If she was not dying to know, I was not going to tell her, or take her, or even mention that school was starting soon.

She didn't ask about it until Friday of that week. Then I broke the news to her. She took it better than I had taken it. She was fine. Seems she has the same put-on-a-happy-face skill that I have mastered.

Fast forward to tonight, the 3rd day of school. The Muss has been C...R...A...B...B...Y all week. Very crabby. She, however, maintains that nothing is wrong, which I know is not true. So, after tucking her in and going back downstairs, I hear her sobbing. The dam finally broke and maybe I can drag from her the problem. It was what I thought. She hates 1st grade (never been a fan of change, that one), she hates the classroom, they don't get to do anything fun, all her friends are in the other class, no one likes her in her new class, the list goes on and on. At least she is talking to me finally.

So, we spend the next hour, past bedtime, going through every issue and talking it over. I think I may even have made myself feel better in the process. Woohoo, momma, heal thyself.

We will have to see how the next few days and weeks go, but I think we will make it. If she can make new friends, so can I.