Okay, three weeks into my maternity leave and already I am turning into THAT kind of mom…
Yeah, yesterday I took the girls to the mall. In my defense, we only hit three stores and I was looking for very specific things. But the mall? Katie has only been to the mall once before. I think she was a little perplexed. We grabbed lunch at the food court and she kept asking why we couldn’t eat outside… I didn’t have a very good answer. The mall culture is somewhat inexplicable.
While in the Gymboree, the salespeople couldn’t have been nicer. Katie claimed to need to go potty and the sales assistant took her for me (there was no way I was getting a double stroller back there, too). It was actually quite nice. They even offered me a job (“we’re hiring!”) – that is, until I mumbled that I was a lawyer. There’s something ultimately depressing about being embarrassed to say what you do for a living. People hate lawyers.
But back to being THAT kind of mom… I made application to Pre-K for Katie last week. I applied to three places, realistically only believing that Katie would be accepted to one of them (the deadline for the other two was January, and thereafter it’s rolling admission). Imagine my surprise, then, to receive a call from the Admissions Office today from our “favorite” of the three. They would like for Katie to come in and meet the teacher, plus spend a half day playing with the kids this week. In other words, she’s being interviewed.
And I swore I wouldn’t be goofy about the interviews. That’s why we purposefully avoided all of the schools that required formal testing or structured interviews. I didn’t want Katie to have that kind of pressure as a four year old. I just don’t think it’s appropriate.
After I hung up the phone with Admissions, however, I did it. I turned into THAT kind of mom. I wondered what she would wear. I thought about how the drop off would go. And yes, I actually considered pre-interviewing her – you know, asking her what her name is, where she lives, etc., to see what she’d say.
I think my Katie is brilliant. I also know that she has about ninety different personalities (I know, it’s called being a toddler) and I hope that on the day she goes for her visit, she decides to be the fabulous little girl that I know that she is rather than the girl who spit at Super Nanny or pushed her sister or worse, talks from her hiney.
I know that, despite what people say, this isn’t her only ticket to college. She’ll be fine (insert deep breathing here). I just wish it were easier. She’s only a kid. I am trying like the dickens to impose no pressure on her at all – it seems that there is enough already from outside sources. But boy, it’s hard.
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I have to ask: what are the schools you’re considering?
Loaded question.
For Pre-K, we narrowed it down to Frankford Friends, Greene Street Friends and Wissahickon Presby. There are a few other schools that intrigued us but we weeded them out for a number of reasons.
We are also hopeful about some of the charter schools in the area (though all of those are K, not Pre-K) and hear that there are to be three magnet elementary schools in the Philly area. Additionally, there is a local elementary school that is, if you believe the press, getting better and better. So, for K, there are additional options.
But Pre-K was tricky. Those three schools were the ones who had the best mix (for us) of philosophy, education and climate – mostly based on comments from friends – that were appealing.
I’m glad the visit went well: it’s a two-way street, you know! Did you look into Plymouth Meeting Friends?
We did look into Plymouth Meeting Friends (and a few other Quaker schools). Ultimately, we didn’t want to go crazy with Admissions, so we chose schools that we had heard good things about and had some measure of personal recommendations. This whole process is kind of freakishly weird – you’re narrowing down a school for your kid based on a few pamphlets and a website unless you know someone who has been there before. At least with college, in theory you have years and years to think about it. Pre-K stuff comes at you so fast… We honestly didn’t think about it for awhile (though we have friends who, honest to God, fretted about their daycare/preschool options while pregnant). It just didn’t seem like it was going to be an issue, until it was.