March 13, 2026
Preschool Dreams
Nailed it.
Michelle Rial is the author and illustrator of the forthcoming picture book Charts for Babies. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Oprah Daily, WIRED, and more. She is on Instagram and her 13th preschool sickness.
P.S. 10 surprising parenting tips and four games to play with your kids while lying down.
Tags: comics
Comments
98 commentsThe norovirus slice is way way way too small. I’ve had at least 1 kid under 5 for 13 years now and it’s my constant relentless companion. I’ve heard there’s a vaccine in the works and I will be the very first in line.
Speaking of lice. One year the school had an outbreak and the both my kids had it. Several over the counter chemical treatments only seemed to make the lice bigger and stronger! And I didn’t want to pay HUNDREDS of dollars to have a pro comb everyone’s hair for hours only to have them catch it at school again. I heard of a treatment. You slather the hair with Cetaphil gentle skin cleanser and blow dry it till hard. Sleep on it overnight then rinse it out. It coats and suffocates the lice. Lice were GONE. One treatment and done. Less than 10 bucks. What a relief!!!!!
OMG THANK YOU!! I just paid $440 for treating my daughter and myself after over the counter stuff failed us. Almost (I SAID ALMOST) excited to get a chance to test this!!
Oh man, seeing this on my baby’s first day back in school after one of those impossibly long weeks where we all had the flu and I have aged years since I last got to deposit him mid-air into the impossibly talented arms of Ms Jenn
Oh this made me smile. Years ago I worked at child care center in the preschool room … one of the best jobs I have ever had. Loved it! But, that first year was full of all kinds of surprises … stomach bugs, influenza, pink eye, strep!!! It certainly improved my immune system!
as an early childhood educator, I LOVE this. we are in a scary time and so many people are opting to keep their children home, or at least out of public schools. please, DON’T. send them. trust in childhood and cling to the faith that it is the one thing that will remain as intended and created. your children are so well loved, and this is the creation of the educational foundation (yes, even that core lice discovery in the nurse’s office memory) that will hold up the rest of the complicated years and layers to come. let it pour, let it set, let it be without cracks. preschool/ kindergarten is truly where it’s at. xo.
Yeah, if the kid is lucky and the teacher is good. Some kids thrive in school. For others it can be a traumatizing nightmare never forgotten. Starting with pre-school/ kindergarten. This is just a fact. It’s not all love and rainbows. ” The one thing that will remain as intended and created ” hmmm, I have to think about what that means and how it’s achieved and guaranteed universally. For every child.
Hahaha this is so funny. Hand foot and mouth disease is a classic at home. Various types of cough too! Argh.
My kids are in elementary and middle school now, but I loved this so much, I shared this with their preschool teacher. The glitter and Bento Box totally nailed it.
Being a preschool teacher 5% catching throw up in your hands. 5% a surprising wet cough to the eyeball 10% what’s that sticky substance? 15% feeing all the feelings 15% hearing the best stories ( “sometimes my mom lets the boobs out of the cage then says ahhhhh”) 50% Awe. Growth. Snuggles. Celebration. Tears. Inclusion. Bandaids. Mistakes. Patience. Joy.
This is adorable. As a mom of a preschooler, I thank you so much!!!
LOL. I regret not making this 1000000% LOVE OF TEACHERS. I just love our preschool teachers so much (literally tearing up every time I think about it lately because it’s almost the end of the year). THANK YOU!!!!
And just think about all those hard-working, underpaid teachers. xxxxxx
Hahaha this is so real. A suspiciously good art project or an art project with a single stroke. Ah, a budding Picasso
This was ALL true for us, and I also agree with the others that I’m glad we got the worst of it done in preschool. My kids (5th and 9th grades) still get sick but they were so much healthier in elementary school and beyond, and I think some of that has to be all that immunity they built up early? I still remember going to go pick up my preschooler one time and while I was signing her out, I observed the kids all crowded around a big bowl of dough with the teacher because they were making bread or something. Right as I thought, “OH, SO CUTE,” two of the kids sneezed directly into the bowl. Could not have grabbed my kid and fled quickly enough!
This feels like a fun time to tell my hand, foot and mouth story. Last fall, after suffering for weeks with heinous mouth sores, I finally went to me beloved family doctor. He took one look in my mouth (by the time I got my appt it was so much better too) and said, yep, coxsackie disease. And he said, and I quote “NOT COCK SUCKER”. Lol. Now, I’m not even 100% sure i had it, because 1. Adult and 2. Even though I’m in fact a preschool teacher, no one else had it or caught it. But hey, at least I didn’t have COCK SUCKER DISEASE.
OMG!! Was that in keeping with his general sense of humor? Or did it really come out of nowhere?
Abby, he’s an absolute angel of a man and a wonderful doctor, and we’ve been with him for decades. Never once heard him curse!! (Is cock sucker cursing, hmm?). He does have a very laid back manner and great sense of humor. But talk about a dose of instant cure, I really did feel better immediately.
I completely adore this beautiful graphic but want to offer: it has been agony to think about the danger that faced the Temple Israel preschool in Michigan yesterday due to an antisemitic attack. Thank God the babies and their teachers are safe.
I appreciate this comment. I made the graphic a little while ago and am regretting that the timing may seem insensitive (though you are not saying that!). I am feeling so upset about the attack and also recommend the moving Bess Kalb piece others have mentioned. While I’m regretting things, I also regret not making the teacher segment 1000% bigger :) After I made it I suddenly started sobbing about how much I love my son’s teachers, the fragility of everything, etc etc etc.
Thank you, Michelle! Bess Kalb’s newsletter yesterday was so spot-on. And thank you for your empathy and love of teachers, amen to all of that!
As a preschool teacher, CACKLING. And, we really love your kids. Yep, even THAT kid.
If this helps any parents or parents to be reading this, illness is hard to avoid whether or not your kid is in preschool. So don’t feel too bad if your kid gets sick at preschool/daycare. My son was in daycare and is now home with me. Yes, he got sick more at daycare but he still has gotten sick every 4- 6 weeks since the Fall. We see kids in a group indoor setting maybe once every two weeks for a couple of hours. Last two times he got sick: outdoor playground with just a few other kids and a playdate with ONE other child. Illness is unavoidable. He also got hand, foot and mouth at the LIBRARY
Apt, sitting next to my 3 year old with hand, foot and mouth >>sob face<<
All the viruses and childhood diseases are a pain for sure, BUT and I hate to be a Polly Anna here they are helping our kiddos build strong immune systems that will help them fight more serious disease throughout their lives! Like so much of being a parent it is short term pain for long term gain. And again my apologies for being Miss Goody Two shoes!
Sorry to be the “Well, Actually” person here, but this is very untrue! RSV and pinworm may both lower immune responses. Kids are more likely to get hand, foot, and mouth disease when their immune systems are weak. Norovirus might not affect your immunity, but it can certainly mess up your gut health for a long, long time (speaking from experience, unfortunately). COVID isn’t mentioned explicitly, but it’s still very much here, and research is showing damage from repeat infections compounds and can affect your immune system. That might be why so many people are getting sick more frequently, with more medieval illnesses, are taking longer to recover (if they fully recover at all), and are having things like month-long coughs. Letting kids (and adults!) get viruses over and over isn’t doing them any favors and could make their lives harder in the future. Stay informed and stay safe!
High five to Know-it-all! Viruses have all sorts of strange effects on the body, many of which we’re still figuring out. WASH HANDS!
Actually, what Cate is saying is absolutely true. Many of those colds and flues strengthen the immune system. Obviously there are certain illnesses that have more serious and damaging effects (that is why people should get vaccinated… think Polio, Covid, the Measles, and so on…). Obviously one shouldn’t try to get sick intentionally (wash your hands, etc etc), but that does not negate the basic fact that exposure to viruses and bacteria, generally, strengthens the immune system. It is basic science. Funny aside…As a teacher, now in my 30th year of teaching, I hardly ever get sick anymore. In my first fifteen years of teaching (it was especially bad my first two years and then when my child was in preschool and grade school) I was always getting sick. It was so frustrating. Knock on wood, but after all of these years and exposure to so many colds and viruses, I have not had a cold or flu for years! (Ps: I get the flu and Covid vaccines and have all my other shots since childhood). I never thought I’d be that person who can fight off all the bugs but alas!
My butt itches now.
Haha what a true nightmare – my daughter had them and the only thing that saved us was she was still in diapers at night so I would wrap her up suuuuuuuper tight each night. Then have a whole routine in the morning with gloves and wiping her down and laundry – I’m exhausted just thinking about it – what a long two weeks!
The only thing we haven’t had yet is lice. And all of the illnesses usually occur within a period of just a couple months (or fewer)! Thank goodness for our wonderful daycare providers.
OMG zip lock of poopy pants made me LOL…soooooo accurate
We have had a really interesting pattern of illness. Between ten years’ worth of one line a day diaries and dedicated notes on my phone, here was our pattern of illness: age 1-2 daycare: 3 days out of school age 2-3 preschool: 22 days out of school age 3-4 preschool: 7 days out of school age 4-5 preschool: 2 days out of school Obviously all kids are different, but just wanted to throw this out there for those in the thick of it! It does get better!
Wait, I wanna hear more about this one sentence diary. I love that idea.
@ Tracie Here is a great essay my friend Edan wrote about hers!! https://www.scarymommy.com/lifestyle/im-in-my-40s-i-still-keep-a-diary
There are professionals you can find to take care of the lice, but I don’t know that a service exists for the pinworms. I choose lice.
Haahahaahaha yesss. And amen to those amazing people who work all day long with my little Wild man and still love him nearly as much as I do.
Ooooh I actually don’t like this! It’s annoying that kids get sick when they’re together, but that’s a feature of kids, not preschools per se. In a time when early educators are suuuuper underpaid and undervalued, and early education/childcare is a major missing piece of our society, both for kids and for women’s careers, it feels icky to reduce the experience to 50% germs. I know it’s a joke, and I know it’s hard on families that kids come home with colds and lice and etc etc etc ad infinitum, but this still feels like a devaluing miss to me.
Yeah, I think the angelic teachers piece of the pie needs to be over 50%. I am SO grateful for the incredible people who have enabled me to continue working and expanded my son’s world.
How did I realize we all had lice? I was at work, scratching my violently itching head, and a louse fell out onto my keyboard. The stuff of nightmares…
Yes to MANY of these except the slice for art projects is waaay too small. My first kid is only 3 but we’ve long been overwhelmed with the number of drawings, paper crowns, art projects, etc. that he brings home! Multiple a day! Now that my second is in school too there’s just now way we’ll be saving as many things as we did with the first. Sorry baby! We also had a windfall back in January the day before the huge east coast snowstorm when my kid accidentally brought home someone else’s waterproof mittens. He has none of his own, so you better believe we used those during the 4 snow days that week. I feel bad that whoever owned those mittens didn’t get to use them during the snowstorm! (And yes I tried contacting the parents I knew to see if their kid was missing them, and no luck! We sent them back when school was reopened; still don’t know whose they were!)
I tried to do the thing where you take a picture of the art to make a kid art book out of it but I couldn’t get my own shadow out of the pictures and drove myself crazy.
Too real.
Oooof I think that settles it for me and my immunocompromised kiddo. Anyone have experience with outdoor preschools? Maybe it’s wishful thinking but do your kids get less sick lol?
We did a mostly outdoor preschool and my kid still got sick so much. They just have such a hard time not putting their mouths in things, in their own mouths, on each other. My kid went to preschool during covid and the kids masked (which was a bit silly asking 2 1/2 year olds to wear a mask) and it didn’t help. I’m sorry you are having to figure out that puzzle! Not an easy one :(
We actually switched schools from a seemingly chaotic, not very clean, coming home with other kids things and food that flew into our packed lunch…. To a very clean organized school with frequent hand sanitizer and hand washing … but still get at least a monthly illness! It just seems inevitable! If your kiddo is immunocompromised maybe teach him best practices at home and really talk to teachers/your schools that can put your kiddos health first if not second…
*tour :) Best of wishes to you !
I have a friend who ran an early elementary program in VT and they did outdoor school for as many classes as they could. I think it did cut it down! Sorry you’re dealing with this for your kiddo. I can imagine how stressful it must be:/
Good luck! We are at a small private elementary school because I am immunocompromised and this school 1. Cleans the air, 2. Requires people to test for COVID and 3. Stay home when sick. The kids still bring home viruses sometimes but it is worlds better than the local elementary school which does none of those things. Sharing in case this is helpful.
We did forest school for my older kid and then went to (and now are in with my second) play based very loose traditional preschool- WAY less illness at forest school! We live in San Francisco if you want a rec :)
Lol add to the pie chart: SO MUCH CANDY. Lollipops, melted chocolate, fun dip, every week there is either a class party or a birthday kid bringing in cupcakes…. all of our efforts to be a low-sugar household went out the door when she started preschool!
Interesting! I wonder where you’re located. Our kiddo never got sugar at either of the preschools she attended.
Our California preschool was dramatically better on this stuff than the Colorado one we switched to after a move. It gets worse in public school. It is always someone’s birthday or special occasion….
Absolutely agree… sounds like Elle has it worse than us, but certainly my kids have their fair share with all the birthday celebrations and little parties (Valentine’s day, st patty’s day, etc. etc.) and subsequent goodie bags at least a few times a month. In the summer they also get weekly ice cream treats as their school snack. I am in northern Virginia/DC suburbs.
This is TOO real. Daycare was like boot camp for our immune systems.
But also – I did get some work done lol
YES to all of this! And on a serious note (although the endless runny noses and mystery illnesses are no joke), just read this beautifully written article and am now crying about all we really want for our preschoolers: https://open.substack.com/pub/besskalb/p/our-childrens-schools?r=flpk2&utm_medium=ios
YES to this! I hope everyone takes a moment to read yet another amazing, resonant piece by Bess.
Oh man hahaha I remember the horror, googling how the heck to get glitter out of hair. (olive oil!) And when I asked how it got there? “Molly did it first,” followed by a pantomime of wiping up a hand full of glitter off the floor, and streaking it through her part.
Yup. My daughter got pinworm twice in six weeks. I’m still recovering – she’s totally fine.
We had pinworm last fall and I’m still traumatized. I honestly may never be the same. I would rather have the flu, lice, a broken leg ALL COMBINED than go through pinworms again (still??). Nightmare of nightmares.
Agreed!! I was so traumatized after it and kept thinking I caught it – my daughter jokes about it now but oof it’s still so horrific to me
PINWORMS. GAH. Grossest week of my life.
You’re lucky it was just a week. HORRIBLE.
I don’t know what pinworms are and I’m scared :(
I am with Caitlin! Not sure what pinworms are but even with my robust immune system, I am scared now! And how the heck to you get these? (Or better yet, how do you avoid them!)
Pinworms are a parasite… you get them from an infected person who hasn’t washed their hands well after using the restroom. They don’t transmit disease but they do make your butt very very itchy and you have to give everyone in the household medication plus do a TON of laundry and vacuuming to get rid of the eggs. Ugh.
The memories of ziplocs with poopy pants just raised my blood pressure 💀💀💀💀💀💀
Same! It was more than 20 years ago for my kids and this comic brought back that memory in a visceral way.
This might sound bitter but is really just trauma: I got every single cold that my daughter brought home her first year of preschool–sick for two weeks, recovered for two, start the cycle over, and repeat seven times that winter! My husband didn’t get sick a single time. But when she brought home hand, foot and mouth disease, I had the antibodies but my husband did not and he got really sick. It was so satisfying to -NOT- get something for just that one time!
Hah, Elizabeth! I was you, sick all the time. My kids got HFM literally the day I flew out for a two week business trip, so my husband had both kids sick, 24/7, and got sick himself. I felt badly for him, but not enough to wish I could trade places.
Haha Elizabeth I SO relate to this!!!
Yup! But glitter would be a good 1/4 of ours.
Yup, sounds about right! My 1st grader still laments that her preschool days are behind her!
My son is in the second last year of high school and the nostalgia lives on!
Actually, my brother is 51 this year and we STILL talk about how much he loved Mrs Jolly at his preschool.
This makes me extremely thankful I don’t have children
hahaha!
Came here to say this! I can handle cats, not kids. We adopted a kitten with ringworm, which might have been worse than anything on the chart. FOUR months of scary drugs for all four cats, weekly dips at the vet that left them yellow and smelling like gunpowder, and basically roasting everything we wore or slept on in the dryer every couple of days. Also daily dusting, wiping down, and vacuuming every single surface in the house, starting with the ceiling and going down the walls to the floor. But we never got it! (My family banned us from visiting them as this happened over the holidays, and that was actually very nice.) However, I don’t know about pinworms and I am NOT googling it.
Hope you have some good niblings. Preschoolers are really fun and sweet.
Oh, the quality and quantity of time I spent with my daughters and my nieces with nit combs and mayonnaise.
Eeeek not preschool but daycare – just solidified our spot in a local daycare for our yet-to-be-born infant starting in September. Big deal – and the fact that the kids all looked so happy with their teachers really made the decision a lot easier for us. Am already anticipating the sicknesses… and just telling myself “It builds their immune system!”!
Maybe it’s the rose coloured glasses of days gone by but I LOVED daycare for my kids. We’ve had nannies and daycare and my vote is hands down daycare – it’s so nice for them to have a little life of their own!
Great to manage your expectations with the sickness and plan as best you can – for me that meant anticipating that not only am I going to be home regularly to care for my sick child, but that I may also then regularly be taking off sick time for myself when I inevitably catch it. Nothing that can be done, but managing my own expectations has been helpful. And you’re so right! It truly does build their immune system and it’s developmentally normal and it does get better! (Hard to remember when you’re in the thick of it though!) My son’s now been in daycare for almost 4 years. The first couple years, we caught every bug and were literally sick on a three week rotation. Now, after those couple awful years, he literally got one cold this entire winter.
Yay Caro, congratulations! It makes a world of difference when you have a good gut feeling like that. It was so hard to drop my kids off the first time but it got easier and daycare is WONDERFUL. We’ve been at the same center with the same teachers for six years and I am so, so happy my kids had that experience. Not to say there haven’t been times when it’s been hard, but I really love my kids being part of a big community with the teachers and other families. The kids and I have made great friends through daycare. And they learn cute stuff that will totally surprise you. My 2 y/o came home yesterday and goes: “Mom! Up high! Down low! Cut the pickle! Tickle tickle!”
My 6 yo daughter has had lice TWICE! We have also had pinworms. Sadly I would rather have pinworms. Lice scarred me. ….things I never thought I would say but here we are 😂
Mine once had both. At the same time. I think I legitimately still need therapy for that.
OMG! Nope. Give me lice a thousand times over pinworms.
We had lice once and pinworms twice, and I too would rather deal with pinworms, LOL. I think my feelings were swayed by the fact that I discovered the lice the day before we left for a two week vacation, so a lot of vacation time had to be devoted to picking through my kids’ hair.
We’re getting ready to close the preschool chapter this year (sob!), but I’m already removed enough that I forgot about the Ziplocs of poopy pants (!!). Feeling an intense need to document because what other small moments will I forget?!
So so grateful for the teachers who play a crucial role in helping us raise our children! We couldn’t love my son’s daycare teachers more and we feel so lucky
hahaha–so much coughing and so much hand foot and mouth. baby school teachers are literal angels on earth. my daughter is only two, but i am already preparing myself for the sadness/sorrow of leaving her school when she finishes VPK.
well, I have the worst cough/cold this week from my high schooler!!!! so it doesn’t end haha
noooooooo!!!! hahaha (and hope you feel better soon!)
@Joanna Goddard My friends are resident associates (i.e., the live-in adultier adults) for a dorm at the college where we all work and they get all the germs, too. It really doesn’t ever end lol.
None of us will miss the lice… i wish we had taken pics of the whole family with plastic foil around our head for an hour… love from Paris!
hahahahaha my friend Andy said they took a photo of them all sitting there with foil on their heads and he might use it for this year’s holiday card — would be epic
When my then first grader had lice, my then toddler noticed all of the attention older brother was getting on his hair, so when nobody was looking he slathered his whole head in ketchup. Although I’m a bit surprised that another mess to clean up didn’t push me over the edge, it was actually the comic relief we all needed. I did not document the lice, but i did snap a pic of the adorable ketchup covered toddler.