Wait List Is The New No.

If Bitter is the new Black, than in this economy Wait List is the New No.

Wednesday I rushed to my mailbox for my much anticipated nursery school letter and I found this.

Dear Yummy Mummy,

We loved meeting you, blah blah blah, we think you would fit in great at our school, blah blah blah, unfortunately we don't have space available at this time, blah blah blah....we would like to put you on our WAITLIST...blah blah blah. You will be notified just as soon as a spot opens up...blah blah blah.

Sincerely,

X Nursery School.

This is what they REALLY meant.

Dear Yummy Mummy,

Your husband is not a Red Sox player, nor are you a billionaire. You have not made massive contributions to our school and you have never appeared in the society pages of any of the local newspapers. However, in this economy we can't count on all the families that we have deemed worthy enough to be able to pay our pricey tuition. Therefore, we would like to make you wait and put all your plans on hold just in case we need your money and then maybe, JUST MAYBE, you will be granted admission to our school...unless someone better comes along that is.

Suck It,

Elitist Nursery School

OK, clearly I am still bitter. After 2 days of wondering what we did wrong I now realize that this is not the end of the world, and that this is just a blip on the little man's educational future. A good friend of mine was also wait listed for another school and they are the best people I know so clearly there is nothing we could have done. My friend's husband was the one who said, and I agree, that in this economy no one is going to say "No" for fear that maybe people will not be able to pay when they are granted admission, so it is likely that everyone who wasn't an immediate yes, was then put on the dreaded wait list. 

The Husband, who is unaffected by all this, thinks that the whole thing was probably fixed from the beginning. Not in a Madoff pyramid scheme sort of way, but more in a "we only have 10 spots and we all know someone who has already put in the effort, time, and money to fill those spots." Like everything else in this town it seems to be all about who you know, not necessarily who you are. I guess even at 18 months that lesson seems to apply.

At this point I am pretty much over the initial rejection. My mother-in-law has assured me that this is nothing compared to the feeling when those college applications start to roll in. Besides I look at my husband, and all the other successful men and women I know and none of them went to some fancy, schmancy private nursery school so I don't think this denial will be indicative of the little man's future. 

I of course reserve the right to reassess if that phone call ever does come in saying that my little man has been deemed "acceptable."