First day of school...twice

August 27, 1996 - my first day of kindergarten

August 29, 1996 - also my first day of kindergarten

I thought this was a fun topic for this week as all kids head back to school (although mine have been back for a few weeks already). 

There were a few times in my life that my parents ended up in an argument about my schooling. The biggest fights being in kindergarten and then again in 4th grade. Now to be fair, those "arguments" were typically my mom trying to keep my life stable, and my father moving around to find his baby momma (or landlord) of the year/month. 

This one really gets me. My mom (the custodial parent) enrolled me in a private school, our parish (where I was baptized and attended church), after trying to give my father a chance to enroll me near his home. He basically said "no I'm going to do what I want"...

And the courts let him. I thank God that he wasn't allowed to homeschool me, I truly can't wrap my head around what my life would have looked like never leaving that house. It's the abuser's dream...no mandated reporters and a schedule that they can mandate and manipulate. 

This excerpt is a very small part of the filing that my mom sent to the court on September 5th...requesting that they intervene so that I could have a stable place to attend school after multiple swaps back and forth.

August 27th...1st day of kindergarten at St. Mary's (and I will say that I actually remember that day). I remember walking into my classroom, and I vaguely remember posing outside the house in my outfit. I remember being happy with my school and feeling excited.

August 29th...1st day of kindergarten at Kirtland (but I don't remember a single moment of it). I remember the rest of the year, and I did have a wonderful teacher...but I don't remember starting there at all. 

As for the next few weeks...I don't remember where I went but my gut says I went to both depending on which parent I was with for a week or two? I feel like I went to both and left both a few times (but I can admit that may be the fact that it has been 30 years since it happened so my memory may be skewed). 

Not sure that I had some over the top "point" on this post...other than "this is the absolute insanity I was in for 15 years." It felt like an interesting perspective given the first few weeks of school.