Now really, how necessary is it for us to spend 1.5 hours touring a daycare room and listening to the teachers and toddler director ramble on? It is next door to the room Leif has been in for nearly one year now. We have all seen the inside. We all know there is a toddler sized toilet in there…
I hurried home after an unusually late afternoon meeting. We ate quickly, the babysitter arrived since the teachers requested both parents present if possible. Leif sobbed as we told him we were leaving, but would be back soon and gave kisses and hugs. Then we left to drive BACK out to near where I work (about 25 minutes away). I assured myself Leif would certainly quit sobbing in just a few minutes. Wouldn’t he?
We get there and the toddler director launches into developmental milestones and what the current Montessori research is showing and how that is reflected in the classroom. Interesting, but takes 20 minutes at most. She tells us things like that a new program at the school is going to be language immersion with one teacher in each class that speaks a foreign language 100% of the time to the children. (I am gung ho for that especially being that this teacher is not Leif’s primary caregiver!) ;-) We learn their potty training philosophy… only when the child is ready and shows interest AND can remove ones clothing and redress him or herself. Clothing independence must be achieved before they will work with the child because if a teacher is not immediately available to help your child (out of the 18 in the room) the child must be able to do this him or herself. Leif? Nowhere close to this milestone. Along those same lines, elastic band pants only, no snaps or zippers or overalls and no onesies allowed in the room once they are full time. (We need to go shopping.)
After that we all (18 or so parents) get up to follow the teacher around the room. Seriously now… must we all walk around the room? We can see everything. Oh well, we file through the little desks and chairs and by the little dish washing area, see the boxes on the floor which indicate who is “next in line” for any number of things to allow that unspoken “ATM distance” for the toddlers to do their thing without crowding. We ask a few questions to the teachers and the director. We learn about the TumbleBus (that Leif will be clamoring for). A few more experienced parents offer tidbits… like it isn’t the peer pressure that will get you to succumb to paying $68 for 8 weeks of TumbleBus, it is your child feeling left out of something fun as everyone else goes to jump around and play in the TumbleBus. *sigh* We learn the scoop on one teacher who is leaving, just leaving, and soon, no transition for the kids. We learn the scoop on another teacher who takes her breaks at the most inconvenient times, i.e., when all the kids are being dropped off and picked up and therefore you never see her if she is your primary caregiver (which she isn’t ours thankfully).
We all stare blankly at each other and make small talk, wondering who will be the first to excuse themselves… hell, let’s go I motion to AB. We excuse ourselves and thank the director for her time. Go get in the car and then notice the deluge of parents on our heels to their cars.
Back at the house the babysitter informs us that Leif cried for a full hour. Completely inconsolable. I was sure the new Elmo DVD would have helped, it didn’t. He apparently sat at the window crying. Finally she gave up and got a chair and sat next to him since he freaked out of she touched him. *sigh* Finally she lured him away from the window with bubbles and got him into the bath, a bottle into him and into the crib. Upon our return Leif of course returned to full wakefulness and it took AB forever to get him down.
We don’t leave Leif with a babysitter usually. It is rare we go do something that we can’t bring him. Nor do we really want to go out and do things without Leif. We are content in our lives without movies in the theaters (although the new X-Men movie is peaking AB’s interest) and either getting take out instead of eating in restaurants or cooking ourselves a fantastic meal instead of dropping $125 at the local fish house. Yes, we lead boring, introverted lives, but we like it. When I spend 40 hours away from Leif each week with working, I don’t relish the thought of leaving him with a sitter. And he gets the time away from us at daycare. Ok, my point is… why make last nights meeting “parents only”? In the least ask a teacher to come and open up their room and ask parents to pay $10 for the evening. I guarantee most parents would have done that and I know of at least two teachers who would have gladly walked out with $60 or so for 1.5 hours on a week night.
See, I have solutions to everything.
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