Registration the Fan Boy way.

When I regaled to Packrat my experiences today, he made the expected sympathy noises about what I had to go through. But through the course of my whining, it soon became clear that he wasn't all that surprised. His explanation- he's seen it all before even though he's never gone near a school to register our kids for kindy or anything of that sort.

Apparently, similar behaviour is exhibited with fan boys and their toys. His example to prove his point was how when the iPhone was launched in New Zealand, far out, boon-docks NZ, people queued for three days. And that was just for a gadget. What more something for your own kid? That led me to ask how he would have done today differently.

He said
1. He'd evaluate the location and premises.
2. Conclusion would be, queuing would take place on a property so overnight queuing was unnecessary.
3. But that meant being there when the gates opened. Apparently, he wouldn't even have bothered with sleep the night before.
4. Bring entertainment. PSP, Zen, Mobile Phone and a Super Big Gulp from 7-11. Choice drink for fan boys.
5. Plug everything in and just sit in the queue, if he wasn't already at the top of it.
6. With everything plugged in, he could ignore all the mothers and their incessant need to compete and compare with the thinly veiled sense of humility and conspirational cammaraderie.

He said, he may not have been so efficient as I was, printing and signing all the forms, gathering all the relevant documents together in a file but he would have been there, at the beginning of the queue and ready for action. Just like he was when new first edition comics were released or when the Lord of the Rings movie marathon tickets had just gone on sale.

Anyway, I've told him he is welcome to handle this aspect of their education while I sit at the nearest cafe, count the number of parents and kids and enjoy the quiet.