Makes me glad I'm a NYC (brooklyn) parent.... maybe I can put my 5 month old on every wait list possible and when she is ready for these activities we're golden.
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Reason #481 I am glad I don't live in NY!
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oh man, DH read this article and asked me to read it. I refused to read it! we are currently in the process of discussing whether to stay in NYC long term or move to the burbs, and i'm definitely more on the NYC side, while he's completely torn. This article really affected him! this whole thing stresses me out
Has your 5 month old applied to high school yet? if not, it may be too late
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@bunnylove08: I saw this when it first came out and I refuse to read it. It depresses me.
Someone actually asked me if I did a school tour of our zone elementary school. LO is almost 11 months!!! WTF?
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I already started to read up on the gifted program and my head is spinning already.
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@mrsjazz: i'm glad someone else refused to read it! haha!
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wow - this would stress me out!
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@bunnylove08: I did the same thing! I even downloaded the pre-k application just to read it...my baby is 6 months old. The public pre-k acceptance rate for my district is 3%.
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@Pirouette: DH and I were dead set on moving to NYC (from Jersey City) when our lease is up. We ended up looking in lower Westchester in a town with an *awesome* school district. Ya know, for that kid that hasn't even been conceived yet...
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This is why I've already told DH that we are NOT putting LO in any actual school in the city. By the time he/she is old enough for pre-K we are outta here! We just don't make enough money and don't know the right people to get our child into a decent school (there are no public pre-k's in my neighborhood).
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I love NYC but now that I have a LO, I'm glad we don't live there anymore because I think it would just be too stressful for me as a parent!
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@LindsayInNYC: haha, i hear you! we have this debate at least once a day... and ultimately i decided i want to at least be in the city for the first year, because having a LO and commuting terrifies me at the moment. but the other problem is the endless debate of westchester v. NJ, we just don't know where to go from here, but we still talk about the LO as if he's already here (or even already conceived!)
@Modern Daisy: we decided that even if we DID make enough $, which i don't even know what that would possibly be, we didn't want to spend that much on education for a 5 year old!
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@Pirouette: Ironically, DH works in NJ while I commute to White Plains. We've lived in Jersey City for 4 1/2 years now - 4 1/2 years too long! So NJ was easily eliminated. Nevermind, any future jobs for either of us will likely be in NYC.
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Yeah I can't even. We will be moving back to our home state before LO is old enough for preschool. Though we keep saying that and we're still here. Our leases are always up in June and we never want to leave before summer in NYC since it's the best! So we keep renewing...can't break the cycle.
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@LindsayInNYC: too funny, DH works in NJ, but i work in the city. it makes it tough, because he has no plans to leave his job, so he'll be commuting to NJ for a while. he thinks from westchester the commute will take him forever, but i love westchester (and we have an office in WP too, so i could potentially split time between the two). i may have to ask you to help me put together a pro-westchester/anti-NJ list when the time comes
@hummusgirl: oh i totally get that. i have so many friends that say "when our lease is up..." and most of them are still here!
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@Pirouette: I worked in midtown up until this job. Ironically, we have an office in midtown but I was hired for WP. DH loves his job too but it's more demanding that we/he expected (he went from consulting to in-house and his boss is a workaholic). I think the Westchester to NJ commute will be an hour, assuming traffic is decent. It'll be less than 30 min for me door to door though which is a plus when we have a LO. I'm admitted in NY and NJ but practice solely in NY. If I were to change jobs, it'd be a NY firm or in house which tend to be in LI and Westchester.
@hummusgirl: We kept saying, when our lease is up we'll finally move into the city (from NJ). 4 1/2 years later and we're still in NJ...
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@LindsayInNYC: less than 30 min is amazing! i'm trying to convince DH to be open to some of the southern westchester towns near the Hudson, so he'd be so close to the bridge. an hour isn't bad at all. But he just thinks i am being silly about not wanting to move to NJ and that i just don't want to be a jersey girl, haha. i just prefer westchester! this is why we are renting in the city for a while...i'm going to have to put together a full brief on the merits of westchester over NJ
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@mrsjazz: when I read the article, the fist thing that went through my head was @Thank God DH is a teacher', so I know that the stakes for summer activities are much lower for us. The pre-K situation is rough, but honestly I think NYC parents really feed into the hysteria. Every body at the playground is so obsessed with what activities kids are doing.
People think I am crazy because I don't have plans to enroll LO in Mandarin classes. She is 8 months old for God's sake, if she wants to learn Mandarin her grandmother can teach her or something. I need my headspace to worry about putting food on the table. I can't be competing with these crazies and their obsession with keeping up with the Joneses.
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@plantains: Yes! SAHDs for the summer! We have one public pre-K in our area and LO most likely won't get in because the percentage of acceptance is so low. We do have lots of private pre-Ks in the area, so it will just be like we are continuing with daycare.
I'm thankful that I live in an area where there's not this intense competition--at least not for all of this extracurricular stuff.
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@Pirouette: That was really my thing - I'm kinda anti-Jersey (I guess I'm a snob about that?). I know Westchester has some awesome schools though which was really important to us. Some of the towns have a cute downtown areas and don't feel suburb-like either (DH is anti-suburb).
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I am resigning myself to the idea that we will have to continue with daycare. That way, if she gets in to public pre-k it will be a nice bonus.
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@plantains I totally hear you. I already told MIL that we're shipping DD to her (in PA) and we will visit her every weekend during the summer. it will be like summer camp for her because she will get to horseback ride and swim.
I just worry about the schools, I think the best thing we will just have to do is try to live in an area that has a great school system so we dont have to worry if she is in the gifted program or not.
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@Pirouette: @LindsayInNYC: It's a trap! Oh well, I'll gladly stay trapped for another year and a half (at least).
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I read that article a few weeks ago. It's really interesting, but at the same time, I lived in NYC for 4.5 years as a parent (just moved away less than a year ago) and we got by without waiting too long for daycare or extracurricular activities.
DD 1 went to a non-selective preschool... There was no wait involved. Perhaps we got lucky though... They had just expanded the school a few months prior. But I know other parents who never waited too long either. As for extracurriculars, her school rotated through options for yoga, ballet, soccer, and piano. Music and Spanish were already included in the curriculum.
When I became a SAHM and sent her to school only part-time it was super easy doing free kids' stuff around the city on her off-days (library or bookstore storytime, kiddie concerts in the park, etc)... we also had no trouble getting in gymboree or a music class in our neighborhood. I'm just saying, you can still live in NYC with a young toddler and get around all the hoopla with waiting lists, etc...
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