LJI 8: First-World Problem
When I read this topic, I really wanted to make fun of myself. I wanted to snark all over the various whinings and complaints I've made over the past year: "Wahhh, we're living on Unemployment!" "Wahhh, we have to live in my in-laws' condo in Florida when all my friends & family are in NY!" "Wahhh, I just had to spend a huge chunk of my savings to move my belongings from one state to another!" All of these were legitimate causes for complaint, but most definitely lend themselves to reminders of how much better we still had it than so many other people - even other first-worlders.
However, as I think about it, only one thing keeps coming to mind - the thing I've been focused on for most of my waking hours (and several of the sleeping ones) since the decision was made: the situation of my son's education. My last Idol entry was about making the decision to remove my son from his previous preschool.
Solving this dilemma has only opened the door to several other, related-but-different dilemmas:
1. Telling him about our decision. So far, we haven't. Today would've been his first day back, and he didn't ask any questions at all about why he was staying home with Mommy instead of going back to school. (This is probably an advantage of taking him out right after vacation - it just meant his routine wasn't going back to what it was, instead of a brand-new disruption.) Until he asks, or we have a solution (whichever comes first), our decision is to hold off on any explanation. I'm not entirely comfortable with the lies of omission, but it seems the best way to keep his world as "normal" as possible.
2. Finding a new preschool. He's only 3 and not fully potty-trained yet. Both of these limit our options, and make things more expensive than if he were older. There *is* another Montessori we're interested in, but it's a lot more expensive than the old school was. However, they do offer financial assistance, *and* they're looking for an office assistant... so I'm hopeful something can be worked out. If not, I'm sure there's another good option out there somewhere, but it's going to be difficult (but not impossible) to find everything we're looking for, at a price we can afford.
3. Being a solo-SAHP again for the first time since summer '09. This makes me nervous, I admit. However, today was our first day, and it wasn't a disaster - even though I'm underslept and hormonal. We'll just take it one day at a time, until the solution arises.
All-in-all, there are a lot of worse problems we could have. There are a lot of worse problems we *have* had over the past year-and-change. But even those problems were certainly "first world problems," and by definition not as bad as some folks have it. Still, we play the hand we're dealt. Right?
However, as I think about it, only one thing keeps coming to mind - the thing I've been focused on for most of my waking hours (and several of the sleeping ones) since the decision was made: the situation of my son's education. My last Idol entry was about making the decision to remove my son from his previous preschool.
Solving this dilemma has only opened the door to several other, related-but-different dilemmas:
1. Telling him about our decision. So far, we haven't. Today would've been his first day back, and he didn't ask any questions at all about why he was staying home with Mommy instead of going back to school. (This is probably an advantage of taking him out right after vacation - it just meant his routine wasn't going back to what it was, instead of a brand-new disruption.) Until he asks, or we have a solution (whichever comes first), our decision is to hold off on any explanation. I'm not entirely comfortable with the lies of omission, but it seems the best way to keep his world as "normal" as possible.
2. Finding a new preschool. He's only 3 and not fully potty-trained yet. Both of these limit our options, and make things more expensive than if he were older. There *is* another Montessori we're interested in, but it's a lot more expensive than the old school was. However, they do offer financial assistance, *and* they're looking for an office assistant... so I'm hopeful something can be worked out. If not, I'm sure there's another good option out there somewhere, but it's going to be difficult (but not impossible) to find everything we're looking for, at a price we can afford.
3. Being a solo-SAHP again for the first time since summer '09. This makes me nervous, I admit. However, today was our first day, and it wasn't a disaster - even though I'm underslept and hormonal. We'll just take it one day at a time, until the solution arises.
All-in-all, there are a lot of worse problems we could have. There are a lot of worse problems we *have* had over the past year-and-change. But even those problems were certainly "first world problems," and by definition not as bad as some folks have it. Still, we play the hand we're dealt. Right?