I love living in Glebe. I must, hey? I write a blog about it! So because I love Glebe it doesn’t enter my mind to leave the suburb, say if I had children, for example. Some would say that children need space to run around and do stuff. The great Australian dream would have us living on the quarter acre block in a 3 bedroom low set brick house in “the suburbs”.
Arran and I
have decided that we very much like living in Glebe in a Terrace house with a
very small yard. We have a larger yard than most in Glebe but it’s still small
by Australian standards. It’s a very convenient place to live. Within 200 metres of our house we have:
- an Indian Restaurant
- 3 Thai noodle restaurants
- A cocktail bar
- A pub which claims to have Sydney’s coldest beer and fantastic pub food
- Two small supermarkets
- A fish and chip shop
- 5 cafes
- A French inspired restaurant
- A bank
- A drycleaner
- 2 Japanese restaurants, which we never go to because I don’t “get” Japanese food
- A German bakery
- A Vietnamese/French bakery
- A nail and waxing shop – best mani-pedi’s going!
So this is
all pretty nice isn’t it? Except we didn’t get the memo, that we were supposed
to move to the suburbs once we had kids! Apparently that’s what the city
planners expect us to do. Young professional couples move into the inner city
suburbs to live and to work and to get married.
All good. Then when you decide to have kids you are supposed to need
more space and you then move further out of the city.
But guess
what? Arran and I don’t want to do this. Apparently there are lots of other
parents living in the inner city who also don’t want to do this. Hmmm….so?
Well next
year Aiden starts school as do many other kids in the area. This topic has been
consuming mother’s group conversation for the past 6-9 months and frankly, I’m
over it. I’m over talking about the same topic over and over and I’m over not
having a range of education options. You see the small inner city schools are
not able to cope with the fact that we didn’t choose to move out to the suburbs
and send our kids to schools that are probably better equipped to enroll larger
numbers of kids.
So here we
are in Glebe. When Aiden was about 4 months old I paid $250 to put him on the
waiting list for an Independent school in the area. Because we turned down a
place for Aiden for pre-school we have to wait until October to see if he is
going to get into Kindergarten. Welcome to Sydney people. Apparently I should
have put him on the list when I conceived!
We are in
the catchment area for a public school that doesn’t have a good reputation and
doesn’t compare well academically with the other schools in the area. Every
parent wants their child to go to a good school and I also want a school that
is going to be able to AND happy to provide extra support for Aiden’s vision
impairment. I don’t get the impression that this is the school for Aiden.
I attended
a Kindergarten information evening at another school in a nearby suburb, which
comes highly recommended and has a good reputation. I was solely there to find
out the chances of getting Aiden in as an “out of area” enrollment, as were
half the parents there. This topic was not covered as part of the “information”
and I found myself with 10 other desperate parents grilling one of the teachers
and Administration Managers. One parent was so desperate she was enquiring as
to when she would be considered “in area” if she bought a house in the catchment. But when would she be considered in area? Would it be
when she signed the contract to buy the house? Or would it be when the sale
settled? What date would matter to get her child into Kindergarten in 2014? That’s commitment.
I have
found another little school in a nearby suburb which is lovely and the
principal was willing to meet with Arran and I. It would be a great school for
Aiden and I have filled out the “out of area” enrollment application. Crossed
fingers.
I know it
will work out and the best option will come up for Aiden, but gee wouldn’t it
have been handy if we had got the memo?