'No Young Children Allowed'

Today hasn't been a good day. Today was J and K's 'Christmas Celebration' at school, and for the 2nd year running I missed out because I decided to have more children.

You see, the school have adopted this 'no young children' policy on their school plays and assemblies where parents are invited. You are expected to find alternative arrangements for younger children, so you can attend these events and watch your older children.

Last year I missed out as A was 14months old and they had brought this policy in. P went to watch and informed me that there were other children there of similar age. So this, as you can imagine upset me as I had missed out on my kids school play to abide by their rule, when clearly others hadn't.

So this year, when the same letter came home we decided that we would get childcare for A and would take Z with us. After all he is a 13week old breast fed baby, so couldn't really leave him with anyone. We assumed that this would be ok. Unfortunately it was not.

The whole school were walked from their school to the local High School where the play was to be performed. It was raining quite heavily. We had to park 5 minute walk away and decided to put a sleeping Z in the pram. We walked to the High School in the rain, then queued in the rain to get in to the hall. We were immediately met by the Deputy Head "There's no room for a pram and it was put on the letter {about no young children}"

I decided to take Z and go back to the car. P went in to the hall to watch the play. I cried most of the way to the car. Upset that yet again I had missed out on my children's school play and because of the way I was spoken to. P told me after that there were 2 rows of seats at the back of the hall that were empty! Would it really have been do bad to stack a couple of chairs up and let me hide in the back row with Z?

Now maybe I handled it wrong? Maybe I should have taken Z out of the pram? But then I'm left with a pram getting soaked out in the rain and a baby who would more than likely wake (then cry) and I would have to leave the hall anyways to comfort him. As the entrance to the hall went straight outside, it would mean I would have to stand in the rain with him.

It has really angered and upset me. I'm now hearing of other local schools in the area have the same policy, but they also have a separate performance for those who do have younger children. I wouldn't mind if our school did that, but they don't.

Have you ever been turned away from your child's school play??