Harvest Baptist Church is as bureaucratic as any other large organization

We are looking to put Illianna in a Mother’s Day Out program and God what a mess this has turned out to be.  At first, we were going to give Illi to my mother once a week and let her go to the MDO program over at her church. It seemed like a good idea since it gave my mother a chance to see Illi, us a night off from Illi, and Illi got to spend the day at a church where she already knew everyone and really liked it.

My mother’s health and home life isnt all that stable, so out of the 6 or so weeks Illi could have attended, she has made all 6, but 4 of them we had to drive her, an hour each way, instead of the actual plan of meeting and geting some time to ourselves, even more important now that Anara is here.  A total bust there.

We then started looking around at the local churches.  Gateway Church in Southlake, for all its size, doesn’t have a preschool or MDO program.  (hint hint).  Then we checked out Harvest Baptist Church in Watagua which at first glance seemed like a good idea.  However, upon further investigation, they want to place Illianna in the 1-2 year old because she was born on 9/11 instead of 9/1 or before.  10 days!  It didnt matter to them that Illianna is the size of a 6 year old, they evidently want to hold back her development because of the beaucracy.  When questioned about it, the receptionist said they just did what the schools did.  Dont make me laugh!  First and foremost, the schools make a lot of exceptions.  Secondly, Harvest has their own school, which wouldnt be needed or have students if the schools were so damn perfect.  The receponsist did say the supervisor would evaluate the situation after a month or so.  Not good enough.  A month and all the costs paid later, what if she was stuck because there wasnt room or the supervisor didnt feel she should be moved? I refuse to go through the hassle.  I asked to speak to the supervisor, and was told she wasnt aviable, only to meet her about 4 minutes later when she came out and introduced herself as the Executive Director.  I told her the problem, and she said, “Yes, that is the rule.”

Oddly enough, just because you are a church doesnt mean I am not a customer.  Exceptions in the system as large as Keller ISD are made all the time, so surely there is some wiggle room over 10 days before you place a kid that is bigger than any of your 4 year olds into the same class with kids that are only 15 months.  But alas, no.  So we are going to look for another program, hopefully one that is a bit less set on their rules and regulations.

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it. ~ Henry David Thoreau.