Monday, May 7, 2012

Working parents and fieldtrips

I love the daycare center that my youngest son attends, but I'm annoyed by one practice.

Whenever they have fieldtrips we, as parents, are required to provide chaperones for our wee ones. I have no problem with this policy and think that it makes a lot of sense. My problem is that we feel like we are looked down upon for not being able to provide a chaperone or take off of work.

As in "Ummm, since you son is the ONLY student not going on the fieldtrip, I'm not totally sure where he'll be when you pick him up. But he'll be here somewhere...."

Excuse me? ONLY one not going? Did you really need to point that out to us? We can't help it if my wife made the decision to actually have a career or that we moved across the country so I might someday get a real job.

I can only imagine how single parents must feel. As if it were somehow their fault. Or that they were somehow incompetent as parents. You know what? Parents do the best they can and don't need hints that they could be doing better. 'Cause the good parents have the whole guilt thing covered and the bad parents ain't listening.

OK. I'm stepping off my soapbox and digging back into this meaty grant for the lab. Too bad I won't be around when it's funded.

PS. I think it's time for decaf.....

4 comments:

  1. I'm a bit irritated by an upcoming school trip... they're going to some sort of amusement park and for kids under 7 a parent has to go too. There doesn't seem to be a not-go option. Luckily it's after the university school year ends so presumably one of us can go (and work on the weekend to make up for it).

    But if we couldn't I wouldn't feel guilty, just irritated.

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    1. To be fair, my son is too young for him to say anything, so I don't really feel all that guilty. But it does tick me off a bit. And if there wasn't a no-go option I would look for a new daycare. 'Cause I'm that cranky.

      As an aside, my oldest son never had a problem because his daycare instructor was able watch him (she didn't have any children of her own).

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    2. Well... now they're saying kindergartners need to be driven by their parents, then leave at 12:30... it's a 35 min drive, and apparently $20 on top of that.

      So DH and DC are going to play hooky that day and go fishing at the local lake like they've been wanting to for a while now.

      Not feeling guilty. Definitely feeling irritated.

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  2. what the hell? you are paying them to care for your child but you have to provide chaperone. uMMMM NO thank you. Either select field trip where staff can adequately chaperone or don't have field trip

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