Kallie was very intelligent from an early age, and Alice was considering putting her in preschool once she turned three. She was incredibly easy to potty train and took to it naturally, so we had no concerns about that. She was also very well behaved, although she did get a little crazy when Alice would dance and sing with her, and she loved her picture books, so Alice thought it was imperative that we get her into education as quickly as we could. I disagreed, and it was one of the only real parenting arguments we had in regards to both children. I wanted to let them be kids as long as they could. I wasn’t against preschool and thought that it was a great idea for them both to be exposed to and play with other kids, but I wanted to base our decision on the merits of which school looked like it would be the most comfortable and fun for them, not on educational credentials.

Alice said that she could see my point, and that she agreed with it, but that she wanted both kids to have the best by way of schooling. I agreed with her, too, but it was a bit complicated because whatever schools we looked at, we judged on completely different things. It was only made worse when we talked to Bette and Tina about it.

Bette, as everyone had expected, had been hellbent on getting Angelica into the best, most prestigious preschool she possibly could. Tina didn’t really buy into any of that and they had some really big arguments about it. I had been at the Planet one day with Tina when she told me that Bette’s mission for their daughter’s education was driving her insane. “She’s a kid! I don’t see why it matters so much.”

“Yeah, I thought all they did was color and play with Play-Doh and take naps, and drink juice and have cookies when they wake up,” I said with a shrug. “If a kid is three, I really don’t understand the point in really trying to educate. They need to learn on their own by playing, not be structured.”

“Exactly! I want to be able to go somewhere close to get her, not have to drive an hour each way. It really doesn’t make a difference at this point in her life.” I had nodded, and when I’d told Alice about it later she’d agreed wholeheartedly. She still did, but she was concerned with the school’s reputation as well.