Lottery Un-Lucky

The buddies have decided they might like to try a 1 or 2 day / week pre-school in the fall. After calling all of the programs in our area, I discovered that most registered in early February and are already full. Early February! We're talking about pre-schools beginning after September 1st! I can barely think past two weeks into the future, much less 7 months. Anyway, my phone calls resulted in two programs of interest: one that registered this morning and another that has on-going registration but still has at least 2 openings in the young 2's class.

This morning, the buddies and I skipped our regular playdate and headed over to our first pre-school registration. As we entered, we were given a number and told to have a seat with the other 100+ families there, vying for spots. At 10:30, the pre-school director began calling numbers at random and those lucky families went to the front to register their children. Parents and children anxiously awaited their numbers and cheered when they "got in". The buddies and I waited and waited and watched all the families around us register. After about 10 numbers were called, the director announced that the 4-year old classes were full. After about 10 more, the 3 year old classes filled. And then the M/W/F 2-year old classes. We were hoping to be included in the T/Th 2-year old classes which eventually filled, before our number was called. In fact, by the time our number was called (about 10th from the last), all the classes were full. Ace and Ben are numbers 8 and 9 on the waiting list, with little hope of getting in.

Some of the parents that didn't get spots were actually crying. It was intense. We were just as happy not to get in since I'm still not sure that I'm ready for the buddies to be away from me. But, we will tour the other program tomorrow and see what we think. I don't remember it being this hard when I applied for college 13 years ago.