The racquet of Kidville University!

Oh the racquets for the rich! At "Kidville University" in Cobble Hill your expensive little child can be socialized for only $2495 per semester for "2" hours 3 days a week!  Or you can fork over $4890 per year on top of what you are already paying to the nanny, etc. 
This all takes place at Kidville University, or, what you might say, "a great money making franchise".  Also what Jordan thought was going to be a place for the girls to explore in the teeny padded gym, it turns out the owner will cancel any play time the children if he can squeeze in a birthday party at 500+a pop!

AHHHHHHH!!!!  Once again, there was no time set aside for those customers who have paid for gym time because more dollars can be made giving Bday parties!

Kidville and Warren Buffett!

  Maria and I took Tess and Gigi to Kidville today.  This is where all the nannies and a few parents take their children when not at the park. It's a small store front on Court St. with a front reception room about 9x10 where the parents park their strollers.  On one side they have classes like "rockin railroad" with a real band and a singer, and in the other room is a padded childproof room for the children to climb, jump on a trampoline, swing on a rope, etc.  We got there with Tess and Gigi and tons of toddlers with their Jamaican and St. Vincent nannies sitting around.  There was a grandfather and grandmother with their grandchildren.  The grandfather, Jim, it turns out was from San Jose and he wasn't watching the children.  We started talking about East coast versus West Coast and the rents, etc.  He said he and his wife, who originally was from Brooklyn, rented a place for the month for 3000, but he said nobody wanted to trust them because they were from out of town.  His daughter was an attorney who worked in NY and his son-in-law was a chef.  

"He thought of opening a restaurant in NY, but there would be about 300,000 in fees!  It's crazy.  This city is run by the attorneys. He's not going to do it here, he says he'll go to the west coast if he wants to open something."

I told him how provencial I thought it all was here.

He didn't know how much rent his daughter paid, but he said "I'm from the bay area which is supposed to be the highest priced area in the country, but it's nothing compared to here!"

Cobble Hill-the rents are nuts! And San Francisco, Los Gatos

What can I say-things change in a week.  Jordan was all set to take the apartment, but then the landlady dragged her heels and put it up on Street Easy minus the broker for $4500.  The owner wanted to wait a week even though we'd agreed to $4200.  Well, Jordan was all ready to sign that week and then I went nuts. I thought it was too small, too dark, though nicely done inside, and that we'd hate the bars on the windows.  Plus, being from the midwest and California, those apartments are "basements" and nobody lives in a basement.  By Sunday the whole deal fell apart.  Jordan thought twice about the price and said no more than $4000.  Meanwhile, the landlady herself had her own suspicions about us and said we were not a fit!  She was right and the apartment went back on Street easy for $3900!  

I met a grandma in the park from Hungary, named Susana, and she was here watching her grandson who was 6 months old.  She said her daughter and her husband were architects in the city and he was Japanese.  At Christmas the Japanese grandparents were coming over to watch the baby.

"I feel it is not good here, too expensive.  Plus, when I was a mother in the sixties we got 3 years to be with the children.  All they care about here is money, money.  I think they will have to eventually leave.  The mothers need to be with the children".  I told her about the irony that Kate Middelton was staying home with her "mother" as a nanny, while all the "Brooklyn" moms were running to work leaving the children with nannies.  Of course the fact that society never considered a woman's job worth anything is indicative of our society.

But it seems like everyone is under stress these days.  Jordan's good friend in San Fran quit her job as an attorney when her husband went back to work, but then his company went under and now both need a job.  And my daughter-in-laws good friend in Los Gatos, Serena, is under a lot of stress. Her husband has been out of a job for more than a year and they have to sell their house, under market value.  Plus she went back to work as a translator half time and gets up at 3 in the morning for overseas hours!

Another one of Jordan's friends is a missionary in Brazil.  Her name is Angela and Jordan knew her from high school.  SHe lived in Washington DC, but hated it there.  She said everyone was into their possessions, their I Phone, etc.  She, her husband, and her children went back to Brazil.

So, what's it all about? Alfie?