Paris

I talked about Paris* a little last year. She's a lovely child,(third grade this year) sweet and silly and girly and... well, not exactly the number one priority in her parents' lives.
(Did I do that apostrophe in the right place? It drives me insane to try to remember all the rules for an apostrophe and an 's' which is why I ended up calling the family of Cletus, who used to live across the street, the Cletoris family.)

So at the end of the school year, our company offered FREE fall registration. That's a 50 buck savings if you enroll one child, 75 if you enroll more than one.

I talked about registration with her dad when he came to pick her up. Which he did like twice the entire school year. The rest of the time, her 17 year old half sister picked up. Interesting family, can't tell you too much because one of them is famous enough that I could get in a lot of trouble.

Then, on the 29th of June, Brashley made phone calls to all the registered families in our programs to remind them that they only had a few days left to take advantage of the free reg fee.

And Paris did not get registered. Her dad said they were probably going to move away and he didn't think they'd need day care.

Okay.

So now fast forward to Friday. I got a call in the early morning from mom. And she said, "We are heading out of town and Paris will be attending this afternoon."

Um, no. No she won't.

I said, "But I don't have any paperwork. She is not registered in my program."

Her mom said, "Well, I'll go online and register her right now."

The trouble with that is, there is a 48 business hour waiting period between the time a child is registered and is approved for attendance. This is due to possible special needs and other things, and can be waived at the area manager's discretion.

So I gave her the number to call our customer service and wished her luck with it.

On my way out, I talked to Andrea*, the school secretary, and gave her a heads up that I may have to bring Paris to her after school. Explained the situation, and let her know that I'd be working on it during the day Friday and check back in with her Friday afternoon when I came in.

So when I came back, she told me that not too long after I left on Friday morning, Dad called the school and said, "Paris is to go to Mental's after school program this afternoon."

Andrea told him that Paris was not registered in my program, and very nicely offered him the number to call customer service for MY company... something she was doing out of kindness, since she doesn't work for us.

And he said (yes, he really did say this) "I don't have a pen. Just connect me."

She told him that he should get a pen and call her back. Which he did.

Then later, my area manager contacted them, and he ended up calling the school and making arrangements for her to take the bus home with a friend.

How is it that a parent doesn't put their child FIRST when making arrangements to leave them and go out of town?


I do NOT get it.