I think I'm going a little nuts. Everybody who's had a baby knows that besides feeding & changing your baby...and sleeping very little...the activity that takes up a lot of your time after giving birth is.................................................................................thank you cards.
Yup. You will be writing tons. TONS. When Steven & I got married we split up the thank you cards between the two of us and wrote them out over the course of 2 evenings. Quick, easy, done. When you have a baby they get drawn out...over LONG periods of time. You have your first baby shower...thank you cards.....maybe a second baby shower....thank you cards....you give birth & people come to the hospital....thank you cards....people come visit at your house....thank you cards....the baby gets baptized....thank you cards....OMG!!!!!!!!! thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you t...h...a..........
Exhausting. The next baby gift I give I am specifically going to write in the card, Please don't send me a thank you card. I know you appreciate the gift & I'd rather you spend time with your new baby than write me a thank you card for this rattle you've already received....3 other times...Love, Laurel.
So here's where I went a little nutty. We sent M.D. to the expensive daycare center for 1 day of fun & friend-making. Prior to sending him we did 2 tours of the facility. I dropped him off the day of his care and also picked him up. At none of these visits did anybody mention anything about paying them. What!? Drop-in care is obviously something they don't do very often because nobody seemed to be able to give me a straight answer. So I called. M.D.'s expensive day of fun was March 1st. I called and left a voicemail with the center on March 4th (Monday) asking somebody to call me back so I could find out how to pay them. Nobody called me back. WTF!? Don't you want my money??? The problem is...my "Laurel" side is saying, Sweet! Free expensive daycare day. Walk away Laurel. This is your blessing of the day. While my practical side is saying, Laurel! You have to find a way to pay them! They are your back-up daycare. They'll never take M.D. again if you don't pay them for the 1st time!!!
**Notice my "Laurel" side and practical side are considered opposites...hmmm.... :)
Well, my practical side won-out...and apparently my insane side. Because I came up for a solution for how I was going to make this business take my money...whether they liked it or not.
I wrote them a thank you card.
Yup.
I know.
I'm an effing idiot.
But I did. I wrote a thank you card. I wrote thank you for taking such good care of M.D. and here is your check for an exorbitant amount of money that I really can't afford to pay you but I have to because my practical side says you'll deny me future childcare if I don't...phew. Okay so I kind of wrote that...a lot of that was more read-between-the-lines implied. I enclosed the check, licked the envelope, and put a stamp on it. I was actually proud of myself. How thoughtful they would think I was for not only paying them (when they clearly didn't want me to??) but also writing a thank you card to the staff.
I mailed the thank you card at 1pm on Friday, March 8th.
At about 2pm on Friday, March 8th I realized that I am a fucking lunatic.
I will be the laughing stock of this daycare center. A THANK YOU NOTE?! Geesh.
Let's ignore the fact, for one second, that I live approx 2 miles from this establishment, AND pass by it on my way home from work EVERY DAY. Let's just ignore that for a minute and focus on the fact that I MAILED a THANK YOU NOTE with MONEY because I couldn't get anybody to tell me how I was supposed to pay them for daycare. This is the bus of insanity and I'm the effing driver.
THANK YOU...for listening.
Yup. You will be writing tons. TONS. When Steven & I got married we split up the thank you cards between the two of us and wrote them out over the course of 2 evenings. Quick, easy, done. When you have a baby they get drawn out...over LONG periods of time. You have your first baby shower...thank you cards.....maybe a second baby shower....thank you cards....you give birth & people come to the hospital....thank you cards....people come visit at your house....thank you cards....the baby gets baptized....thank you cards....OMG!!!!!!!!! thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you t...h...a..........
Exhausting. The next baby gift I give I am specifically going to write in the card, Please don't send me a thank you card. I know you appreciate the gift & I'd rather you spend time with your new baby than write me a thank you card for this rattle you've already received....3 other times...Love, Laurel.
So here's where I went a little nutty. We sent M.D. to the expensive daycare center for 1 day of fun & friend-making. Prior to sending him we did 2 tours of the facility. I dropped him off the day of his care and also picked him up. At none of these visits did anybody mention anything about paying them. What!? Drop-in care is obviously something they don't do very often because nobody seemed to be able to give me a straight answer. So I called. M.D.'s expensive day of fun was March 1st. I called and left a voicemail with the center on March 4th (Monday) asking somebody to call me back so I could find out how to pay them. Nobody called me back. WTF!? Don't you want my money??? The problem is...my "Laurel" side is saying, Sweet! Free expensive daycare day. Walk away Laurel. This is your blessing of the day. While my practical side is saying, Laurel! You have to find a way to pay them! They are your back-up daycare. They'll never take M.D. again if you don't pay them for the 1st time!!!
**Notice my "Laurel" side and practical side are considered opposites...hmmm.... :)
Well, my practical side won-out...and apparently my insane side. Because I came up for a solution for how I was going to make this business take my money...whether they liked it or not.
I wrote them a thank you card.
Yup.
I know.
I'm an effing idiot.
But I did. I wrote a thank you card. I wrote thank you for taking such good care of M.D. and here is your check for an exorbitant amount of money that I really can't afford to pay you but I have to because my practical side says you'll deny me future childcare if I don't...phew. Okay so I kind of wrote that...a lot of that was more read-between-the-lines implied. I enclosed the check, licked the envelope, and put a stamp on it. I was actually proud of myself. How thoughtful they would think I was for not only paying them (when they clearly didn't want me to??) but also writing a thank you card to the staff.
I mailed the thank you card at 1pm on Friday, March 8th.
At about 2pm on Friday, March 8th I realized that I am a fucking lunatic.
I will be the laughing stock of this daycare center. A THANK YOU NOTE?! Geesh.
Let's ignore the fact, for one second, that I live approx 2 miles from this establishment, AND pass by it on my way home from work EVERY DAY. Let's just ignore that for a minute and focus on the fact that I MAILED a THANK YOU NOTE with MONEY because I couldn't get anybody to tell me how I was supposed to pay them for daycare. This is the bus of insanity and I'm the effing driver.
THANK YOU...for listening.