When kindergarten begins to approach, most parents find themselves preparing for first day nerves and maybe a few tears.
However, 31-year-old Sydney mum, Gemma, found she had more concerns than most.
After 18 months in lockdown, Gemma saw her 4-year-old son going further and further inside his shell. While he enjoyed playing with cousins or participating in the odd soccer class with his dad, his lack of confidence was really starting to worry her ahead of that big first day.
“He’s always been a cautious and sensitive kid. It’s a great quality in him — he’s very empathetic and kind — but then at the same time he’s pretty averse to taking risks,” Gemma told Mamamia.
During Sydney’s first lockdown, their son, who was three years old at the time, started to get more clingy than usual. Soon he became afraid to go to the bathroom by himself and Gemma was becoming concerned that his motor skills were beginning to regress.
“We’d ask him to go and get his socks from his room and he’d be saying ‘no, no, I’m too scared.’”
When things went back to the ‘new normal’ in Sydney, he started to improve slightly, but by the end of the 2021 lockdowns, his confidence hit was even more severe.
“At three, those sorts of things were something I could deal with, but at four-and-a-half, I was starting to get worried.”
Gemma and her husband started by trying to get their son involved in a local kids' soccer team. But he still struggled with having to sit on the sidelines away from his mum and dad.
