Preschool drama

We've been talking to families of current students for the past year. Found out we missed the deadline (i.e.: moment of birth) for some. We've been touring schools that only accept applications 6-9 months in advance. We've been following up with the ones we like by sending thank you notes and Holiday cards. An exclusive, invitation-only country club? Ivy-league college? No - it's just par for the course for applying for preschool in San Francisco. Yep - preschool. I made a conscious decision not to apply for any of the schools that require an interview with the child (no, I'm not kidding - many of the schools "interview" 2 year-olds for admission). It just burns me that some of these schools want to weed kids out for any reason. How much can parents have messed them up by 2.5 years of age???

All the "literature" on finding a preschool for your child all say the same thing: find a program that suits YOUR child. Hogwash. It should read: apply to preschools left and right and hope that you are lucky enough to get in. All the parents I know are currently in a very stressful state. Either they didn't get in anywhere or they accepted one of their "backup" schools because they are afraid they won't get anything else. Parents are already mapping out routes and carpools to get their kids across town for 3 hours 3 days a week. We didn't get into one of our top schools, but I did hear that Mats is first on the waiting list at Sweetpeas. Now we just need for one child's family to leave the city. With SF's unshakable real estate market, I am very confident that a space will open up. Finally - a silver lining to the exorbitant cost of living in San Francisco.