Warning: Rant ahead…
I live in a smaller town. There used to be an online mothers group, of which I was a member. At some point, a bunch of the mothers decided to open another group in which you have to know another mom to get in. The old group is now gone.
This is all fine with me. I understand the safety issues involved with online forums, especially ones in which groups of children will be meeting together. I know two of the mothers who are members of the new group, and I signed up for the new group at the end of March.
I am still not a member. According to the site, you cannot access the forums until you attend one of their “events”. Fine. Whatever. Tupperware and candle meetings are not my thing, but I figured that the kid and I could attend one of the kid events.
Here’s the catch: You need to request a list of events. I am not going to argue the point that e-mailing anyone who requests a list of events might not be the greatest idea in terms of safety. However, a list of something should be sent upon request. This is where my problem lies. E-mails from three different accounts have not been acknowledged over the course of 3 months.
Keep in mind that all I want to do is enter the forums and ask for opinions on the local preschools.
What’s a mom to do? I did google some of the area preschools to no avail. Apparently the internets is still a big scary monster in this town. There is one preschool that gets very high ratings online. I recently happened to find out that there was a case of sexual abuse at this same preschool via an acquaintance. Hmmmm…
Being that it is summertime, I don’t see the two moms that I do know on a regular basis. Perhaps I need to hang out at the playgrounds in a creepy sort of way and try to find someone else I can use as a reference?
I have always stayed fairly well-networked on a professional level, but this whole mom-networking thing makes me feel like I’m back in high school. Until this point in time, I’ve been more closely associated with moms who are not in this area. Perhaps I’ve missed out on the chance to join the local “exclusive” clique…
End of rant. At this point, I’m just going to set up some appointments with the schools directly and go with my gut feeling. It’s worked well so far!
ugh! I feel for ya!
I gave up on “mom’s groups” a while ago. I have tried MANY since my first was born 10 years ago. Every single one was either extremely “cliquey”(is that a word? LOL) and since I’m shy, don’t drive and at the time I tried these groups was also very poor…I did not fit in at all! And the one or two that weren’t too bad in that way just plain and simply had bitchy selfish women.
I found that unless you’re a “soccer mom” or the completely opposite you don’t fit in, those of us right in the middle(I consider normal lol) seem to be off on our own and the minority.
I hope you can find out what you need to about the Preschools! I can’t believe these days that it seems all kids go to preschool now! They were extremely rare when I was a kid, and still pretty rare when my kids were that age.
lol, sorry about the mini-novel!
Good luck!
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I know how you feel about the Mom’s groups. I try about once a year but I usually just end up giving up because they are very cliquey.
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i don’t know about mom’s group, but preschools are rare when i was kid…..:)
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Thanks to everyone! I am glad that I am not alone – it makes me feel a lot better. I was able to get into the group (finally), but I think that we have chosen a program (not really a preschool) that is good for us.
I still need to post an intro there…I don’t think I’ll mention this blog!