<p>I encourage my daughter to keep in touch with her local friends, but actually she doesn’t need much encouraging. Though when she’s home, it’s very sweet—she actually wants to spend time with her family! </p>
<p>As for my relationships with parents from her old public and private schools—I always say how much our family loved the old school, but that this was something my daughter wanted to try. I would never imply that BS is better than what they have chosen for their children, just that it’s something that we thought made sense for ours. (With another child still in the public system, I have credibility on this!). But really, I try to treat people with respect and not make them feel bad, and I don’t take offense if they say things like how they could never stand to do that, because it’s true, it’s a big sacrifice in so many ways to let a child go, and sometimes I wonder how I can do it! People are expressing that in sometimes clumsy ways.</p>