Preschool Woes and Stages of Grief

It has been a really bad week for us here. Angry Toddler's preschool owner called me on Thursday afternoon, she told me that her husband is terminally ill and that she would be closing down the preschool "for a while". We are totally devastated. Angry Toddler has been going to this school since June. He has already achieved so much. They have worked with him independently on all of his skills.

I feel like I'm going through the five stages of dying myself right now.

1. Denial-This isn't happening? His school is going to be closed after next week. Where will he go then? What about all his little friends?

2. Anger-How could they do this to us? We counted on this school. Angry Toddler was supposed to go there until kindergarten. Now we have to look for a new school, mid-Fall, when almost all the other schools are all full.

3. Bargaining-At least we have another week. He can go there until almost the end of the month. Five more days of seeing his friends. Will his friends be there next week?

4. Depression-Thursday was not a good day in our household. I'm soo upset. I finally felt comfortable with this school. AT was thriving. He knows all his friend's and teacher's names. He asks about them at night. He was talking about his friend, Jacob, when we were watching tv. I can't help but feel sad, these people were almost like family. In such a short time, we've bonded with everyone.

5. Acceptance-I realized that we need to seek other arrangements. After the school's owner called, I came right home. So much for a relaxing day off for me. I googled every preschool in our city and neighboring cities. I started calling them. About 90% of the schools, were full, or had huge waiting lists. I called one school and they had an 18-month long waiting list. I was able to find three schools that had openings and that fit our needs.

We went on Friday, and toured the three schools. I will do an update of this post at a later time. Right now, I gotta go check on Angry Toddler. Angry Husband is at work. I'm here alone with AT on three hours of sleep...