Fairwell, Frazer Center

Today is the last day the girls will attend daycare at the Frazer Center. Although we find some of their policies annoying (like being closed for 2 solid weeks for which we were still paying each year), and we can't afford them (we're going to save a jaw-dropping amount of money with the new center) we have loved the teachers and we'll miss them.

We wanted to be sure everyone knows how much we appreciate the care they've given our kids. I made cookies, put them in the little red, plush boxes with bows around them (thank-you, Dollar Store!) and affixed the buttons that say "It's too bad the people who know how to run the country are busy teaching school" we got from the Syracuse Cultural Workers to them. Then we wrote thank-you cards to each teacher. When I dropped the gifts off this morning (what's cuter than a little 2 year old in a lovely white fur-cuffed, red velvet dress handing a gift to someone? ) I realized why I'd been feeling so hostile about all the forced "teacher appreciation" the parents' groups at the daycare do. It pisses me off when someone feels the need to tell me to be grateful. Especially when I really am grateful. How can you be sure someone understands your gratitude if they know the effort to get you to bring in muffins a couple times was organized by some other group of people?

I wanted to thank the girls' teachers on my own without someone telling me to, but with all the stuff someone was telling me to do, I didn't have time or money to do it. Now that we're leaving, we're free of teacher appreciation week and month and holiday and birthday and I was able to do what I wanted! It had the effect of making me even sadder, because when I was doing that I wasn't feeling resentful of the other parents...and all I had to focus on was how great the teachers are.

Hope the new place doesn't suck!