Dilemma

Oh well, I guess I can’t keep my promises after all. About once a week I think to myself it’s been too long since I last posted something and I should really post an update, at least to let people know I’m still here, alive and well. But then life gets in the way and I never really do get around to post. I often start the posts but… I’m not even sure if this one will get posted.

Things are pretty much the same since the last time I posted. Except I haven’t just arrived from Italy so I am much more tired than I was then. Work is the usual stress and I’ve given up on telling ZM things will get better after this week’s deadline. They just don’t. Ever.
I asked my housekeeper/nanny to work an extra hour in the evening (she used to leave at 7 pm) and she agreed to give me half an hour and get started on the kid’s dinner. That makes it a little easier for me but it also makes me feel that much guiltier about the time I don’t spend with the kids. It’s a vicious circle.

Anyway...
We are now in the process of choosing which school R will attend when she starts first grade, which is next year (I can’t believe she will actually start first grade in September so I keep repeating it to myself over and over). This is not an easy decision, but we have managed to bring the options down to two schools.

There is the one we had always wanted, because it is really close to our house (walking distance) and would allow our nanny to pick her up from school on the way to M’s preschool, which obviously means M would get to stay in the same preschool he’s in this year. It is a catholic school (mandatory for us) but not as demanding about it as the other one. It’s also a very.big.school. I mean over 2000 students. It kinda scares me. This one would cost us about 3000 Euros per year and it’s really really hard to get an opening. We have an interview with the headmaster February 1st. If we screw it up, there’s no chance she’ll get in. If we don’t, the chances are slim.

Then there is the school I went to when I was a kid. This is a very small school (400 students), very catholic, very conservative, very cosy. It is far from our house (10 minute drive but still, it means using the car every day, which we don’t do now) and would mean that M would have to go there to. This is good because they would be together, bad because of the price (5000 Euros per year, per kid). I was there today and I still knew everyone, and it felt like home and they treated me like family. They said they were full but they would exceptionally open a spot for R (for M there was no problem) because she’s my daughter. And so I enrolled them (paid 560 Euros) just to be safe in case R doesn’t get in the other one.

So, to make a long story short, we can either pay 3000 Euros for a school close to home, but which is bigger and not as demanding (particularly religion wise, which is important to us), or pay 5000 Euros (x 2 starting now instead of in 3 years) for a school whose programme and philosophy we completely identify with, but which is far from home.

Do you have an opinion?