Aubrey, my 5-year-old, who continues to think she can do everything by herself, from brushing her teeth to crossing the street, turns as helpless as a newborn baby when it is time to get dressed for school.

If  I could leave Sadie, my 9-month-old, and Emma, my 3-year-old at home, asleep while I am getting Aubrey dressed, packed and dropped off to school I would have time to put Aubrey’s socks on, and velcro her shoes for her. She claims, “I don’t know how, Momma. I really don’t.”

But since I don’t want to have social services take my kids, I can’t leave them in their beds sleeping while I take their sister to school. So Aubrey is learning she’s going to have to buck up and do some things herself that she would rather let me do for her.

This morning, while I packed Aubrey’s lunch, changed a diaper and fed her younger sisters, she managed to put her socks on her own two feet. But apparently, the shoes were just too much. So when I walked out to my car to take my first load of kids and stuff to the car, Aubrey followed me…in her socks…in the rain…with five minutes to get her to school.

I buckled Sadie into her car seat and left Emma with instructions to “buckle up right now!” and ran back inside to find a clean and dry pair of socks — preferably two that matched and helped Aubrey change her socks and get her shoes back on her feet. We ran back out to the car to find Emma sitting in the passenger side of the car, with all the doors locked, shoving DVDs into the DVD player, one after another after another.

“Good morning” a cheery neighbor called out.

“Um, hi…” I waved, distracted right before I began beating on my car window and bellowing at Emma, “Emma O’Bryant, if you know what’s good for you, you’d better unlock those doors now!”

Getting ready for school is a chore, and now we have to do it every day for the next 18 years. I heard all you Momma’s of older children saying, “Enjoy being home with them it goes by so fast.”

I didn’t realize you were saying this because it gets harder!

I thought you just meant that they are little for such a short amount of time that I should enjoy having them at home with me. I really had no idea that the toddler years were the “easy” part. So this is my public service announcement to all of you hard working moms of toddlers out there— it gets harder.

Eventually you won’t have the option of staying in pajamas all day long, you will have to get dressed and go somewhere. And regardless of whether you are a morning person or not, you will have to get up, feed and dress your kids and get out of your house before 7:30 a.m.

The transition has been hard for me. I had no idea kindergarten would be this hard. Aubrey seemed to be doing fine until she came home from school one afternoon totally exhausted and fell apart. She began sobbing and telling me how much she hated school. “Mommy, kindergarten is so hard! I hate it! I have to do all my work, and go to recess and take a nap and, and, and,” she stopped talking briefly to gasp for air, “And I have to eat in the cafeteria. It’s so hard.”

I held her and rocked her like the baby she still is and did my best to console her. “Mommy, after kindergarten will I be done with school forever?”  

“Well, not exactly,” I said.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her how many years she has left.

(Robin O’Bryant is a Mount Pleasant resident and mother of three. You can e-mail her, zebandrobin@hotmail.com)