What was irking my taters..
I'm borrowing the line from Julie. I mentioned in my last post that I had to write about something else to keep from getting pissed off again. It's been a couple of days so now I can write about it without getting too torqued about it. Here's what happened.
Grasshopper and Maverick were going on a field trip to Six Flags Darien Lake with their YMCA summer camp. They have weekly field trips. As far as we knew, everything was all set to go and both boys were looking forward to going. So at 3:45 pm the day before the field trip, the Wife gets a call from the camp director and the conversation goes something like this:
"Hi, this is camp. We had another issue with Grasshopper today not wanting to leave the pool. I'm afraid that he might not want to leave the water park at Darien Lake and our councellors are going to have 7 to 8 kids to worry about and won't be able to deal with him if this happens. I don't want to take him on the field trip tomorrow and you'll have to make other day care arrangements. Sorry."
Now, there was more to the back and forth with the Wife but that was essentially it. She called me on my cell shortly afterwards, and I was HOT! How dare they do that to my boy! I had no intention of going home and breaking his heart by telling him he couldn't go on a field trip and his older brother could. Nor was I going to tell Maverick he couldn't go because his brother couldn't. It was unfair all around. Not to mention, when we signed the boys up for camp, we made sure they new that Grasshopper was autistic, went over what to expect, and gave them coping strategies to use with Grasshopper. Not to mention that I'm PAYING them a tidy sum to deal with it!
So I did the only thing I could do. I told my boss I had a day care emergency for the next day and took the day off. I chaperoned Grasshopper on the field trip. I rode with the boys in my car to the park and spent the day with Grasshopper's group. And he was perfectly fine the whole day. The "issue" about the water park didn't even come up. When the counsellor in charge of the group said we were done at the water park and were going on rides, Grasshopper was practically jumping up and down all excited to go ride on the rides. We couldn't get out of the water park and get changed fast enough. The only rough spot he had all day was an episode where he got angry because he wanted to ride a roller coaster and we had other things scheduled first. Eventually he got to ride a kiddie coaster and was happy. Nothing happened that they shouldn't have been able to deal with.
In the end, it was great to have a day with my boy to enjoy at an amusement park. What really pissed me off, and still irks me now, is the way they handled it. They put myself and the Wife in a real tight spot by calling us at the VERY LAST MINUTE! It's a good thing I work for a cool company. I've worked places before that would have hurt me big time for having to take a day suddenly. Plus I've actually got the vacation time since, again, the company is generous in benefits and gives me plenty of time off. Hopefully it won't screw me for the rest of the year as I don't have much slush time built into the days I'll need to take later this year.
There are days that I really hate day care providers. They're usually really good. But in the end, they don't give a fuck about you unless you kid behaves perfectly all the damn time. Call me jaded, but this isn't the first time shit like this has happened to us with the boys. And I'm sure it won't be the last.
Grasshopper and Maverick were going on a field trip to Six Flags Darien Lake with their YMCA summer camp. They have weekly field trips. As far as we knew, everything was all set to go and both boys were looking forward to going. So at 3:45 pm the day before the field trip, the Wife gets a call from the camp director and the conversation goes something like this:
"Hi, this is camp. We had another issue with Grasshopper today not wanting to leave the pool. I'm afraid that he might not want to leave the water park at Darien Lake and our councellors are going to have 7 to 8 kids to worry about and won't be able to deal with him if this happens. I don't want to take him on the field trip tomorrow and you'll have to make other day care arrangements. Sorry."
Now, there was more to the back and forth with the Wife but that was essentially it. She called me on my cell shortly afterwards, and I was HOT! How dare they do that to my boy! I had no intention of going home and breaking his heart by telling him he couldn't go on a field trip and his older brother could. Nor was I going to tell Maverick he couldn't go because his brother couldn't. It was unfair all around. Not to mention, when we signed the boys up for camp, we made sure they new that Grasshopper was autistic, went over what to expect, and gave them coping strategies to use with Grasshopper. Not to mention that I'm PAYING them a tidy sum to deal with it!
So I did the only thing I could do. I told my boss I had a day care emergency for the next day and took the day off. I chaperoned Grasshopper on the field trip. I rode with the boys in my car to the park and spent the day with Grasshopper's group. And he was perfectly fine the whole day. The "issue" about the water park didn't even come up. When the counsellor in charge of the group said we were done at the water park and were going on rides, Grasshopper was practically jumping up and down all excited to go ride on the rides. We couldn't get out of the water park and get changed fast enough. The only rough spot he had all day was an episode where he got angry because he wanted to ride a roller coaster and we had other things scheduled first. Eventually he got to ride a kiddie coaster and was happy. Nothing happened that they shouldn't have been able to deal with.
In the end, it was great to have a day with my boy to enjoy at an amusement park. What really pissed me off, and still irks me now, is the way they handled it. They put myself and the Wife in a real tight spot by calling us at the VERY LAST MINUTE! It's a good thing I work for a cool company. I've worked places before that would have hurt me big time for having to take a day suddenly. Plus I've actually got the vacation time since, again, the company is generous in benefits and gives me plenty of time off. Hopefully it won't screw me for the rest of the year as I don't have much slush time built into the days I'll need to take later this year.
There are days that I really hate day care providers. They're usually really good. But in the end, they don't give a fuck about you unless you kid behaves perfectly all the damn time. Call me jaded, but this isn't the first time shit like this has happened to us with the boys. And I'm sure it won't be the last.
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