I'm not sure how I've been doing this a month so far and still have yet to tell anyone aside from a few friends and my dad. My dad is all about it. In fact, he ranted for quite a while about how preschool is just an excuse for parents to get rid of their kids, any parent can teach a 4 year old what they need to succeed if they tried, they can get socialized everywhere, not just in a classroom, how parents are suckered into paying expensive preschool costs for fear of messing up their children, etc. I know it's mostly just his tendency to hate the 'establishment' and see corruption in everything, but it certainly made me feel happier hearing someone support us.

I know that there have been a bunch of studies that show the benefits of sending your children to preschool, and that's exactly what made the choice so difficult. Much like breastfeeding, the advocates make sure that you feel like an evil, ogre-parent bent on setting your children up for failure in life should you choose another path than what they are explaining. Formula-feed your child, and you are poisoning them (and that's not an exaggeration, I've had someone on a message board tell me I was poisoning Kayla by giving her formula). Don't send your child to preschool and watch them falter and fail in all things academic and social.

When I discuss this with the families, eventually, I will not bring up the other studies that I've read that show that while preschool's short-term effects are well-documented and are the basis for all pro-preschool outcry,the long-term effects are non-existent and that the vast majority of children who showed some advantage over others because of their attendance at a normal preschool even-out with their peers in a few years and go on to score the same in all aspects of their schooling from then on. That'd just cause a fight. But it will be a nice, secret little knowledge that I keep within me and whenever I doubt myself or our decision, it will be my confidence and boost to keep on going.

Oye.