The Writing Mamas Daily Blog

Each day on the Writing Mamas Daily Blog, a different member will write about mothering.

If you're a mom then you've said these words, you've made these observations and you've lived these situations - 24/7.

And for that, you are a goddess.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

 

Preschool Acceptance As Challenging as College Admissions


Today I got the call I have been waiting for; waiting with both excitement and dread. It was the school admissions director. As she introduced herself, I was once again a teenager, speaking to the admissions director at Smith College as she congratulated me on my acceptance.

However, this was preschool, not college, and my son had not gotten in. Despite the fact that I had dutifully listed him on the waiting list a few months after his birth, along with all of the other Marin mothers, it appeared that some moms had gotten on the list while still pregnant.

As ridiculous as it seems, I could not help but feel that I had failed somehow.

When I first told my own mother that I was looking at preschools, she sensibly asked, “Why don’t you just send him to the one near your house, like I did with you?”

Oh, if only it were that easy. It is hard now to think about how much time and energy I spent picking out just the right place for my son, as though I really were choosing a four-year “home away from home” instead of a place he would spend just a few days per week.

Would he be happy and safe? Would he enjoy the reading nook and the art corner? I finally discovered the perfect place, just two blocks from my house. My neighborhood preschool.

The rejection felt like a wound.

I chose this small city to raise my family because it reminded me of the friendly little town in upstate New York where I grew up. However, sometimes it seems to be just a picturesque facade of that little town and its simple way of life.

Here, I must rush to the phone with positive pregnancy test in hand and pay a $50 application fee (same as college) and beg preschools to let my sweet-tempered little boy play in their mock kitchens and join their circle time.

Leaving your child for the first time is hard enough without suffering such indignities.

However, I am certain that my son will have many advantages and opportunities here as well... if he can ever get off the waiting lists.

By Rebecca Jackson

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Comments:
Funny how logical and practical our own Moms can be helping us filter through the mucky-mucky of ever indulgence. My Mom offered me the same advice as yours and well, I actually took it (for once). Our children have thrived at the local preschool - which I got into last minute with my post-utero three year old. Good luck! Maija
 
Thanks for your comment, Maija. Yes, after taking mom's advice and finding that perfect place right in my own neighborhood, it was particularly disheartening to be rejected. I am glad that it worked out for you though! Thanks again, Rebecca
 
I wish i could say it gets easier, but sadly it doesn't! We having been through the high school admissions process this fall and acceptances are announced in two weeks. My kids could attend the local high school, half a block away, but of course the opportunities available at smaller independent schools are so amazing. We'll just have to wait and see ............ Allison
 
i feel your pain. gotta work on our "rejection muscles" as Dawn says!!!
 
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