Jimmy Fallon Says Taking His Daughter to Her First Day of Kindergarten was ‘Terrible’

When your kids take their first steps into their kindergarten classroom, we hold our breath and hope they don’t cry. For many of us, we are also hoping that we don’t burst in tears, scoop up our baby, and run out of the school. Kindergarten is a huge milestone for everyone—even celebrities.

While Jimmy Fallon is usually full of laughs, taking his daughter Winne to her first day of kindergarten was no laughing matter. While chatting up one of our favorite celeb mom, Jennifer Garner, about all things parenting on The Tonight Show, Jimmy, who is dad to 5-year-old Winnie and 3-year-old Frances, said he got more emotional than he expected while taking Winne to her first day of school.

“She just went to kindergarten today,” Jimmy shared with a very emotional sigh. “I didn’t cry. But I did, kinda. I kinda held it in — I didn’t want to be the dad that cries.”

Oh, Jimmy, it’s OK to be the dad that cries. We sure you weren’t the only one.

According to Garner, her reactions are based on her kids’ reactions—which every parent totally understands. “Did she skip in or did you see her trying to be brave? ‘Cause that’s what I can’t handle,” said Garner, who is mom to Samuel, 6, Seraphina, 9, and Violet, 12.

When my kids went to kindergarten, I thought if they started to cry then I was going to start crying and then we would all be sobbing messes.

But it wasn’t just leaving his daughter in her classroom that got Fallon emotional. “Just walking to the school made me start getting sad. I was like, ‘I’m not gonna [cry]’ ” Fallon said. “My wife totally lost it. She was crying and she got all the other moms crying. The other dads were cool, so I had to be cool.”

So was Fallon cool with the whole event—no. No he was not. “It was absolutely terrible, I couldn't hide it at all."

While taking your kids to kindergarten is hard, I like to remind myself at least it’s not college—yet. But then I start crying thinking about my kids being old enough to go to college. Parenting sure is an emotional ride.