You could have told me that when I asked you

The BBQ Pit
1

My fiancée and I have moved back to St. Louis after spending the summer with my parents in Florida. School starts for both of us on Monday and, while our schedules don’t directly overlap, we decided it would be best for our 2 1/2-year-old son to go to preschool during the day, especially since we’ll be moving soon and we could use some time to pack and sort.

So Natalie calls some places from Florida and gives me the name of one to check out while I’m up for a week, last week. I take a tour on Monday - it’s a nice Montessori preschool in a new building, it looks very nice. Natalie told them on the phone, and I explained in person, that we would need to have Michael start on Monday, and they said it wouldn’t be a problem. I told them they would come by to take a tour later that week after they flew up.

But Michael got an ear infection, so they decided not to fly until Friday. I called from Florida on Thursday and asked if I could fax the paperwork to them, but they said we could just bring it with us on Monday. I hung up, thinking all was well. But…

…Natalie and Michael get in Friday night to find a message on the answering machine. “Hi, this is so-and-so from the school. I just got off the phone with you, I know you’re out of town until Friday night, and I wanted to let you know that the director said Michael can’t start until September 6. Let us know if that will be a problem for you.”

Well, hell, yes, it’s a problem! If you’d told us earlier that he couldn’t start on the 22nd, we would have made other arrangements. As it is, I have a check for a month’s tuition and all the paperwork ready to go, but if you can’t keep track of whether or not a new child can attend I don’t know if I should trust you to keep track of my child for 6 or 8 hours a day.

So now I have to call them at the crack-ass of dawn and find out what we can do. We can manage tomorrow, though I had to cancel some meetings. But they’d better be falling over themselves to make some alternate arrangements with us, because we’re talking about hundreds of dollars a week for a few years if he likes it.

2

I don’t have kids, but from what I’ve heard from other parents with kids in daycares and pre-schools and such, it is a finely orchestrated affair - they must know that the difference between August 22 and September 6th is ALWAYS a big deal for parents. I’d be shopping around for a new place if I were you - that kind of stunt does not bode well for the future.

3

Ask to speak with the Director, let him know of the agreements that had already been made between the school and yourself and of how difficult of a position he’s put you in. His willingness to make things right should be a good indicator of whether or not you want to stay with that particular school.

4

That sucks, and I’d have a nice, long talk with the director about this apparent miscommunication. It may be something as simple as an underling offering a slot that didn’t exist until Sept. 6th, but it’s still a hassle to you and should raise doubts as to their ability communicate more specific problems.

Robin