That luring thought softens every difficulty, every obstacle, every meltdown moment during those “getting ready” weeks. This is probably the right moment to inform parents of young kids going to their first school day that although you will cry and your heart will melt a bit when you send your little one off — it will pass. Usually very fast. Like maybe the same day. Possibly the same hour. You’ll be fine.

So. Accolades and applause to every parent who spent the past month getting their kids ready for school …

Hats off to parents who went school shopping with their kids. Some kids love that; some kids hate it. Usually both kinds live in the same family which means mom or dad gallop along with the kid who likes being in the store looking for perfect school stuff while dragging along the other kid who grumbles like a thunderstorm on the horizon. You’d like to hand him off to the daughter swirling through the clothing racks but don’t want to risk his attitude rubbing off onto her.

Cheers to the parents who hover on the day class schedules are posted, anxious to reflect the right reaction for their kid depending on what ends up on that post. “Hey, your schedule looks pretty good, doesn’t it?” you say to that young, anxious face even though you’re mortified at the classes and worried about some of the teachers. But you give your best performance ever, no matter what’s really going on inside you. Your face says ‘Yay!’ while your guts say ‘No Way!’ because at that critical moment, your kid needs your upbeat, positive, you-can-do-this support.

Bravo to the parent who goes to every before-school check-in, gets a school-issued laptop, find the classrooms, talks to the counselor about a schedule problem, visits the library, tries the locker combination, checks out the lunchroom Welcome Night, trying to preemptively address every possible glitch before the first big day, knowing full well there will still be glitches.

A heartfelt nod to the parents of special needs kids who walk past the classrooms filled with excited, noisy kids bouncing around on that first day to the quieter resource classroom where their child enters a world very different from the others down the hall. It’s a place of different lessons plans, different teaching methods, different measuring sticks, different triumphs and failures, and different ways to celebrate. Hats off to those warrior parents.

Finally, kudos to parents who started shifting their kids to a school schedule weeks before that first day. Gone are stay-up-late nights and sleeping-in mornings. This is possibly the hardest change of all, because parents don’t like ratcheting back into school schedules any more than kids do. But parents’ motivation is twofold: they want their kids to function well in school, and they want their kids to GO to school. So they call “Bedtime!” earlier, prod their kids until they truly, really, honestly are ready for bed, walk them to bed, say prayers, take their phones, turn out the light, and wish them a good night. It’s a necessary, grown-up job, and they’re the only ones who’ll do it.

So now the kids are finally in school. Embrace your well-earned alone time, give yourself a bit of grace, and don’t worry about homework, overdue library books, lost backpacks, late assignments, mean kids, mean teachers, missed buses, school plays, sports events, fundraisers, science fairs…

All of that will happen whether you worry or not. So relax. While you can.