The Kissing Hand

As a parent, you can try and reassure your child about the transition back to school the power of books can often assist you with this. One of our favourite go-to books for not returning to school but for any situation where there was some form of separation was The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn.

The Kissing Hand is the story of Chester Raccoon, who is terrified at the thought of his first day of school in the forest.

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

“I don’t want to go to school. I want to stay home with you. I want to play with my friends. And play with my toys and read my books and swing on my swing. Please, many I stay home with you.”

Sounds all too familiar to any parent whose child is anxious about a new situation away from home. The book explains that sometimes we have to do things that we don’t want to, that may make us scared. However she reassures Chester, and to help ease his fears, his mother shares a very old secret that she learned from her mother. The name of the secret is the Kissing Hand. She takes his palm and placed a kiss in the middle,

"Whenever you feel lonely and need a little loving from home, just press your hand to your cheek and think, 'Mommy loves you.'"

This reassures Chester knowing that his mother's love will be with him wherever he goes. This, in turn, inspires Chester to give his mother a kissing hand by kissing her palm and then he happily goes off to school.

The book has beautiful illustrations and is easy to read to your child. Although it talks about starting school, we were able to adapt it to other situations and made the separation somewhat easier. At the back of the books, there are heart stickers that you can also use as the “kiss.” This was also a secret shared between Chelsea and me that we didn’t have to share any words for when saying Goodbye at school. A kiss of her palm was enough for her to close her hand, making a fist so that she held tight of the kiss before walking into class.

It’s sometimes the simple things that can make a huge impact on your child and can help with the transition between saying goodbye to walking into the classroom and feeling that you are still there in the form of a kiss. Once again, it was not the solution to having an easy separation. There were days that I could have given Chelsea EVERY sticker in the book, but she was not going to walk into school. However, on the days that it did work, I was very thankful for the story. It's one of those special books that we have kept, and every now and again I sit and read it either by myself or with Chelsea, who in turn has read it to me once or twice, and we still talk about how it helped her and how it made her feel xx

MENTAL HEALTH