More trouble than it's worth

So I called Mary and Keith's school last week to make arrangements to have the bus pick up Keith from the sitter's house for the first month of school. Come to find out that Debbie's house--even though it's practically in my back yard--is apparently zoned for a different elementary school. The transportation department absolutely REFUSED to pick up Keith from Debbie's home--even though she's been running a day care for 15 years and hasn't had a problem having kindergarteners bussed before now!

The parents have the right to choose whatever elementary school their kids go to in the school district, but sometimes there is a transportation problem with the shuttling of kids back and forth (no room on the shuttles)--and sometimes if a parent demands a certain school--or even a certain kindergarten slot--then the parents just might be responsible for transportation. Well, Debbie's house has been on the line right between two different schools for a while, but both schools have bussed to her house no problem (older kids go to a bus stop, kindergardeners are taken straight to the door)--until *I* need it, of course. Now I could still have Keith picked up from the Scribner bus stop--but it's quite a long walk from Debbie's house. Keith can't possibly walk all that way by himself. And I'm not going to ask Debbie to walk him when she's got to drag a house full of day care kids with her every day.

So last Friday the search for new day care began. FOR A MONTH. How frustrating is THAT? I didn't know of any other at-home people who were in the school's bussing zone, so I started hitting all the day care centers. One had a spot for Keith, but no after-school spots for Mary. One had a spot for Mary, but no room for Keith. One didn't return any of my phone calls (how do the PARENTS reach them?) (and--it's too bad 'cause we "inspected" them last year and liked them). One was closed due to the fact that somehow or another a man snuck in last year and molested a four-year old in the bathroom (OH yeah! That's why the number had been disconnected! Yikes!).

Meanwhile, my union rep is BEGGING me to let her go to labor and management to force them to let me leave on Friday. You see, my co-worker also originally had the September 28 exit date, but she got another job and asked them to let her leave by the August 31 date instead. They agreed. My union rep's beef is that they should have offered the same date to ME--especially since I have more seniority! I actually thought the same thing when that happened. But at the time I was under the foolish impression that all my eggs were tidily in their basket and that I could afford to be a "nice guy" for an extra month and help train my replacement. I wasn't expecting THIS. I told her to hold back until I had exhausted ALL my resources.

John and I put our heads together again. He said he could probably pick up the kids as long as I found a place to take them both in the morning. So I called back the center that could take Keith to see if they could take Mary in the mornings. "Well, we do have a spot open, but it was promised to another family. They have until the end of the day to confirm it. We'll call you back tomorrow." Fine. All morning yesterday I waited for them to call me back. Nothing. I called them around 11:00. "OH! We're having one of THOSE mornings! We haven't even had time to meet and discuss it yet! We'll call you back in about twenty minutes."

Tuesday is one of my busiest days at work, so I didn't have time to call them again until around 3:30. "OH! Well, the director isn't at her desk right now! But I think we've made a decision." [on hold for five minutes] "OK, well, the director is out with the kids right now, so I'll just tell you that we decided that we could take her!"

GRRR....

So last night I went to the day care center (and it's a Lutheran Church, how ironic is that) to sign all the paperwork. Great! $50 registration fee. Great! They demand payment UP-FRONT on the first day every week (which is only truly a hardship the first week--as I'll have just made a payment to my OTHER provider the Friday previous). (And don't get me started on how much they charge for a half day and a couple of hours care.) Whatever.

So today the center calls to tell me that I didn't put down the dates the kids were going to start going there (I specifically remembering doing that on ONE of the million forms I had to fill out--just apparently NOT on the form they wanted it on). AND I didn't write down the approximate time of drop-off (I don't remember seeing a blank for that on ANY of the forms). "Oh, and you forgot to pay your registrations feeS." Fees? "Yes, it's $50 PER CHILD." OI VEY!

I'm REALLY wishing I had taken Sue's advice and just demanded to leave Friday. This is more expensive and more hassle than it's really worth for me to just be a "nice guy" to a company I only got to leave just so that they wouldn't have to lay off someone else.....FOR A FREAKIN' MONTH!!!

I demand LOBSTER with my steak at my company luncheon now, Thank you very much!