School Supply Sadness

I did not expect my son’s Kindergarten school supply list to send me spiraling.

I thought we would be picking out colorful crayon boxes, scissors, glue, and fun pencil boxes. I thought we would be having arguments over buying a tacky folder or why we weren’t going to be buying the 64 count crayons WITH the built-in sharpener.

Instead, I am buying 3 things: Lysol spray, Clorox wipes, and hand sanitizer.

There is nothing colorful or fun about that.

In many ways, I am blessed that I have such a small list. I know that we are saving money and I am grateful that his classroom provides all that he will need.

But….

My heart hurts that there is no playful banter over picking just the right scissors and markers. In fact, I couldn’t bear to grab the Lysol, Clorox and sanitizer from the school supply section (they are also located there) so I walked all the way back to the cleaning supplies. I tried to convince myself that I’m just helping out the classroom, but in my heart I knew that this list just highlights another difference between my child and the world around him. Everyone else gets colorful fun and he gets meetings and clinical assessments.

I am so incredibly proud of him and feel so blessed to see the world differently through him, but today I am sad and I’m going to avoid the school supply section like it’s the plague.