Sidheag McCormack wrote:

Rosalie B writes:

I had arranged for my daughter to be taken to pre-school by another mom,
and then I picked both children up. I lived a fair way up the road from
her, so I'd take my child to her house in the morning.

Quite near the end of the year, I discovered that the other mom got the
pre-school teacher to drop by her house and pick the children up and she
never did any driving at all. So I saw that I had the choice between a)
making myself a free taxi service for this other mom b) refusing to pick
her son up at school and looking like I was mean-spirited c) taking my
daughter out of pre-school. I did C. She moaned and complained. Her
reason for not doing any driving was that she had a baby, but so did I

Let me see if I understand this. You took your daughter out of pre-school,
not because it wasn't suiting you or your daughter, not because you were
having to do more work than you'd expected, but simply because someone else
was doing *less* work than you'd expected?

This does not sound rational to me.

It probably wasn't. Emotions are often not rational.

I didn't think my daughter really needed to be in school anymore. She
did not seem to care whether she went or not. I didn't care much for
the child that I was driving, and I don't think she did either. He
was big for his age but not very mature (somewhat whinny) and she was
tiny for her age and very self contained.

I put her in there so she would have some kids to play with. We
didn't have or I didn't know about anything like play groups. I lived
way out in the country - I could only see one other house from my
house.

It was within about a month of the end of the school year and she
would have two older sisters to play with when school was out and a
younger brother. So I didn't think that it was necessary for her and
it definitely didn't suit ME to drive 20 miles (each way) four times a
day with a young baby.

So yes - I was angry because this mom got to stay in her house with
her baby (same age as mine) and didn't have to get two kids suited up
in outdoor clothing twice a day all winter in RI.

Also partly at the teacher because she came right by my house and
didn't suggest that she could pick up my daughter at my house or
indicate in any way that she had been doing the driving. Suppose she
had an accident? I would have been totally unaware that my daughter
habitually rode in her car. (In those days there were no car seats so
this probably couldn't happen now.)

But mostly that this other mother had suckered me into doing all the
driving without any additional compensation in it for me or my
daughter. She never offered to pay (not that I would have taken it).
She didn't seem at all grateful. She seemed totally unconscious that
it would be just as much trouble for me to drive with a baby as it was
for her. It was all about her, her, her.

So I wanted to get even, and I did it (after talking to the teacher
about it - she had been unaware that I didn't know she was driving,
and I didn't want to impact the bottom line of the school). And I'm
not sorry. I do hold a grudge. I'm still mad.


grandma Rosalie