Susannah B. Lewis has a message for all the parents who are sending their kids off to kindergarten: It gets easier.
The Brownsville, Tennessee–based mom — creator of the blog Whoa Susannah — soared to internet stardom after posting a hilarious video to Facebook about letting your little one go on the first day of school.
In the August 11 clip, Lewis, 35, is seen sobbing in her car. “He’s not ready! I’m going back to get him! I’m gonna go back to get him! Because he’s not ready! He’s only 5,” Lewis wails. “I don’t know if he can carry his lunch tray. I don’t know if he knows where the bathroom is … His teacher doesn’t know he needs 14 kisses every 45 seconds!”
She continues: “What am I going to do all day? I’m going to sit around all day and listen to the clock tick and count down the seconds until I can hold him.”
Flash forward to every first day of school after that. George Michael’s “Freedom” is blaring on the radio while Lewis, who traded her oversized sweatshirt for an embellished tunic, books beauty treatments.
Her post has received 25,000 likes, 10,000 comments and 6 million views.
The mom of Natalie Ann, 10, and Bennett, 6, tells Us Weekly she was an emotional basket case when both her kids started kindergarten.
“I feared they would pee their pants because they couldn’t find the bathroom, they would starve because they wouldn’t eat lunch and would miss me so much that they’d scream my name all day,” the freelance writer tells Us. “None of these things happened.”
And though Lewis doesn’t really cruise around making manicure appointments, she does have a first-day-of-school ritual. “My friends and I have a boo-hoo breakfast, where we have mimosas and breakfast casserole and sit by the pool,” she tells Us. “Actually, there isn’t much boo-hooing going on!”