Summer is winding down, and stores are filling up with school supplies and Fall decorations. While I love Fall time, I absolutely dread back to school time every year.

This year, I have a child entering middle school (4th grade), and a child entering Kindergarten. Both of them will be starting at the bottom, in new (to them) buildings. As excited as I am for them to start these new chapters of their lives, that excitement comes with a little bit of anxiety, too.

I love having my kids home all day. I just do. Yes, they fight like crazy, and ask for snacks every 15 minutes, and feel the need to tell me how bored they are all day, but they’re home. They’re with me. They’re safe.

We are living in a time where some schools are thinking about arming their staff members with guns to protect their students. As a mom, that terrifies me. By all means, do whatever is necessary to protect those precious lives, but the fact that it’s even an issue is very unsettling.

When the Sandy Hook school shooting occurred, my daughter was the same age as most of the children that lost their lives. I remember, so vividly, watching the coverage of that day on the news, and crying, wondering how we ever got here. How is this the world that I’m raising my babies in?

There were several threats to schools, some local schools even, last year. I know what you’re thinking, because I’m guilty of it, too. I’m the queen of “it’ll never happen to me”. I was the queen of it, I should say, until I realized that all of the parents that it did happen to, probably thought the same way. Bad things happen everywhere. Nobody is exempt.

I truly believe in my heart, that there are far more good people in this world than there are bad. I will take that thought with me as my kids head back to school, and if you have any anxieties about your kids going back, I hope you will, too.

This school year, teach your kids kindness and acceptance. Teach them that just because somebody looks different or dresses differently, doesn’t mean that they’re below you. Teach them to be a friend to anyone that needs one. We are raising the next generation. Let’s do all we can to ensure that it is filled with good-hearted people, so maybe someday, a mother won’t have to have fears about sending her kids to school. A changed world can start right here, with us.

Raising kids is hard. Being a parent is hard. There’s an old saying that says ‘it takes a village’. Let’s be each other’s village.

I’m thinking off all you mommas out there as back to school time rolls around. Letting your babies go is hard. Wishing you all a healthy, safe, and happy school year!