The First Meltdown...

Well, I think we could classify today as Nicolas' first school related "meltdown". It started before we left the house and pretty much continued until we reached the classroom. NOT because he didn't want to go to school, mind you. But because he has discovered something very quickly in his 3 short days of school...he is one of the few students in his class that's mommy has to work and can't pick him up from school every day. Very traumatic for him...which turns out to be traumatic for me, as well. He started with the simple, "Mommy, can you please pick me up from school today?"...which quickly escalated into a full blown..."YOU'RE A MEAN, MEAN MOMMY! I'm the ONLY kid who's mom doesn't pick him up from school. ALL the other kids get to go home after school. I'm the ONLY one who has to go to daycare!"
Now, clearly I know that his claims are untrue - he is not the only child that goes to daycare after school (I actually asked today and found that there are five children that ride the bus to Nicolas' daycare). But, in his mind, five isn't alot. And it clearly appears to him that I am the only mom mean enough to force him to suffer thru childcare after an exhausting day at school.
"Why don't you WANT to pick me up and hang out with me?" he asks.
Wow. Now there's a nice kick in the gut. Of course I WANT to pick him up from school. Not only that, I want to take him, pick him up, and volunteer (stalk him) at the school several hours every day. I look at him and him asking me why I don't want to hang out with him and I see a teenager, who 10 years from now will be begging me to PLEASE leave him alone! And I think to myself how quickly this stage will pass and how I'm not able to fully enjoy it with him...and wondering if someday he'll magically "get it".
In my normal parenting style, I tried to have a completely adult conversation with him explaining that "Mommy works so that she and Daddy can buy you things like DS games and take you places like Six Flags and Disney World and let you enjoy your favorite foods (McDonald's:-) from time to time without having to worry about where the money will come from - things alot of kids never get to experience."
To which he replies, "I don't care if I never get another toy or ever go anywhere again, I just want you to pick me up from school!"
Again, not true. But where do you go from there?
I can tell you where I went...to work. I left him in a classroom with tears in his eyes, reminded him to get on the daycare bus after school, and left to go make money so I can buy him things he doesn't want, take him places he doesn't want to go and pay someone else to pick him up from school every day.