Day Care Moms - Unite!

Today is the Hoos' birthday. In honor of his birthday, I will not talk about him.

Last Wednesday, LP had a note in her school bag announcing the end of giving kids breakfast at school, effective the following Monday (e.g., today). This was a pretty upsetting notice, not just because of its content and how it would impact the morning ritual in our house, but because of the way in which it was communicated. The note alluded to parent concerns about teacher communication and how some parents felt that teachers were too busy feeding the kids to talk in the morning, but this did not seem like a sufficient explanation. Unfortunately, since most of us pick our kids up after 5 pm, the school's administration had already left, giving us no opportunity to discuss the policy change in more detail.

What happened next was most interesting. Thursday there was a flurry of email activity from most of the mom's of kids in LP's class. We don't know each other well, and for some of us the only thing we have in common is where we send our kids to school. But in this case, that was enough. There was outrage and venting and amazingly, everyone was in agreement - even if the breakfast policy change did not directly affect them. It felt good to be in the company of so many (okay, seven or so) smart, vocal women that all had the same number one priority as me - their kids.

After we had worked out how we would approach the administration to discuss the policy, things just got better. The ice was broken! Someone sent an "off-topic" email, asking what we all sent in for lunch for out hungry little infants. There were several immediate responses.

Then, Saturday morning there was an email sent to all asking if anyone had experienced the "bug" that was floating around the day care center; again, there was a flurry of responses. Within a few hours, we were able to determine that six or seven children in LP's classroom (and some of their parents and siblings - yup, that sucks) were struck by this stomach ailment. Fortunately, we weren't impacted (still crossing fingers) but this is not information we would usually have available (at least not until LP went back to school on Tuesday, which by then may have been too late) AND people were giving solutions and sharing stories and helping to determine how long the sickness would last (we think 24-36 hours).

It was wonderful - it was as if the community I had been craving suddenly appeared before my eyes and I had a group of working mom friends I could relate to.