Emily Maynard Discusses The Difficult Decision To Move Her Daughter To A New School

According to People, former Bachelorette Emily Maynard is opening about the difficult decision she made to switch her 13-year-old daughter Ricki to a different school.

Thirty-two-year-old Maynard was the star of the eighth season of The Bachelorette in 2012. She built a reputation as a single mother with values and quickly became one of the show’s most popular personalities. It was revealed that she had become a mother to her daughter Ricki when she was only in her teens. Unfortunately, the child’s father was killed in a plane crash only a couple years after Ricki’s birth.

The Bachelorette was intended to be Maynard’s second chance at love. On the show, she began dating 25 different men before eventually narrowing it down to the season winner, Jef Holm. Although Maynard thought she had found lasting love with Holm, it was not to be and the two would abruptly end their relationship later that year.

Thankfully, Maynard eventually found the man she was meant to spend the rest of her life with and married her current husband Tyler Johnson in 2014. The pair has since had three children together.

Maynard’s daughter Ricki is now happily adjusting to 7th grade after switching schools at the beginning of the school year. The former reality TV star says things were simply not working at her daughter’s initial school and she knew a change had to be made. She prayed long and hard about the right decision to make in terms of Ricki’s schooling. She posted an Instagram picture of Ricki outside her new school on her first day with a heartfelt caption.

“As parents, we have been entrusted with the most important job in the world which is looking out for our children. “If something isn’t working, change it and stand up for what’s right. I pray for this girl more than I pray for myself and we made a hard decision to switch schools. In return, I have been given a peace that can only come from God. Ricki, you are the bravest girl I know and I can’t wait to hear all about your (second) first day of school!”

Years after her time on reality television, Maynard looks back with some regrets about the choices she made during that time in her life. Though at the time she felt she was doing the best she could for her and her young daughter, she now wishes she hadn’t involved Ricki in the show at all. “At the time, I thought, ‘This is it,’ and I never would’ve brought her into it had I not thought that,” she said.