Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Social dynamics are important but I’m always surprised about parents who place more emphasis on this than academics. Where are they getting a better education? Unless there is a toxic bullying situation, The social stuff you can always supplement with sports- be a coach- that’s a sure fire way to meet a lot of kids and families. Plus, OP you haven’t been there SUPER long. It takes years to nestle into friendships. Some ppl find entertaining (even play dates) too much, especially during the COVID.

I know this is not the same school, due to the price tag, but my friends in one school have pointed out how families who came into their small community during Covid from public, immediately started making "subtle, constructive" digs at the things that made their school, "them" like discipline, uniform policies, more paper compared to tech....and they got tired of hearing it.

They socialize in an "everyone in the class is invited to the birthday party" way but avoid being cornered in the kitchen with the family who seems so hard to please, and whose kid(s) are unkind/impolite/pushy to the kids of people they have known for years.

Not saying that this is OPs situation, but it is something I heard about a lot this month, especially kids announcing to their class they are leaving when there is a conflict, without parents realizing they are making these announcements.

So basically what your saying is that your friends didn’t like when a new person started asking questions and holding a mirror to things that may have been overlooking or convincing themselves were better than they really are? I sincerely doubt that all(or the majority) new kids are unkind/impolite/pushy anymore than those that have been there for years. And kids announcing they are leaving is because a) kids have terrible filters and awareness of what not to say (this is very normal), and b)these kids are probably happy or unhappy about the decision .

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go back to public, private is not worth the money.

110%
-Private School Mom

Lol, you couldn’t pay me to send my kid to the crap show happening in public schools right now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go to public, make the switch now before later.

With all sincerity from a private school parent.

It’s so obvious you’re not a “private school parent”.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Social dynamics are important but I’m always surprised about parents who place more emphasis on this than academics. Where are they getting a better education? Unless there is a toxic bullying situation, The social stuff you can always supplement with sports- be a coach- that’s a sure fire way to meet a lot of kids and families. Plus, OP you haven’t been there SUPER long. It takes years to nestle into friendships. Some ppl find entertaining (even play dates) too much, especially during the COVID.

I know this is not the same school, due to the price tag, but my friends in one school have pointed out how families who came into their small community during Covid from public, immediately started making "subtle, constructive" digs at the things that made their school, "them" like discipline, uniform policies, more paper compared to tech....and they got tired of hearing it.

They socialize in an "everyone in the class is invited to the birthday party" way but avoid being cornered in the kitchen with the family who seems so hard to please, and whose kid(s) are unkind/impolite/pushy to the kids of people they have known for years.

Not saying that this is OPs situation, but it is something I heard about a lot this month, especially kids announcing to their class they are leaving when there is a conflict, without parents realizing they are making these announcements.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. A big part of the reason why we decided to go with private school this year was because of the warm, welcoming community that the school advertises. Well unfortunately we have not "found our people" this past year. We did not know anyone at the school prior to going, we have attended every school-sponsored social activity, and while the other moms are pleasant at these activities, they clearly are not interested in being friends with me or being family friends.

I only have two friends outside of school, we are new to the area (moved here 5 years ago) and we have no local family. I was really hoping that this school would be the place where we would finally "find our people" and make long-lasting friendships for both my child and us as a family. I've invited many kids over for playdates, and these have not been reciprocated. We hosted a few parties at our house for the class/parents, and nothing reciprocated there either. My child was invited to one birthday party this year, and that was it--no playdates or anything. I feel like how is my child going to build strong friendships if these friendships are only school-based? My child is always complaining that there's not enough recess time to have fun with his friends.

When I was growing up, I also went to private school. Every weekend a friend would be over at my house or I would be at theirs. We made family friends at school who we did things with, even though most of these friends lived 20-30 minutes from me. We ended up spending holidays with these families too. Distance didn't seem to be as big of an issue back then for maintaining friendships outside of school. Similar to my son's grade, my grade was also very small (I had 35 kids in my class).

I think in general- private school or not- people in the DC area just aren't that big on playdates. It's incredibly frustrating because my daughter is constantly asking for friends to play with, but I think most people in this area either have too many kids to deal with playdates or they're just so overbooked with extracurricular activities that they don't have time to plan or execute playdates. The only playdates my daughter has on a consistent basis are with neighborhood friends, and any other playdates with have I host without any expectation that they will be reciprocated. I used to get so annoyed with making the effort to invite all of these kids over and never get a return invite, but now I'm just resigned to the fact that that's the way people are around here.

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. Yes, my child became great friends with the 5 new kids to the class this year. I specifically tried to become friends with those moms and we have mainly invited those kids/families over for playdates and get togethers. However, it is clear that none of these moms are interested in being friends with me.

My child is neutral about whether he wants to stay or go back to public. I worry that at his current school he has run out of kids to be friends with already given the small class sizes.

We were at public for Kinder and first, then second was virtual the entire year. My son made one good friend in Kinder/first but overall we were not successful there socially either and had the same thing happen with playdates and meetups (I was the one always reaching out and setting up playdates, nothing reciprocated). I was the room parent both years, hoping to meet other moms, so I volunteered a lot at the school. I did meet one mom friend that way but they moved away after Kinder.

So we didn't find a sense of community at public school either. My son was only invited to one birthday party in Kinder and first (the one friend he did make). My son also seemed overwhelmed by the large, chaotic class sizes and always came home upset about something that happened at school socially.

There are no kids in the neighborhood around my son's age, so public school will not be a way to make better neighborhood friends, our neighborhood has lots of babies and lots of high schoolers.

Anonymous wrote:Go to public, make the switch now before later.

With all sincerity from a private school parent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go back to public, private is not worth the money.

110%
-Private School Mom

Anonymous wrote:What is this play date crap? Never had these as a kid. My kids spend plenty of time with friends during the week at school and extracurriculars (10-11 hours a day Monday thru Friday!). The weekend is focused on FAMILY TIME.