Flakers

Okay, I really wanted to stop being so negative on my blog, but I guess that just isn't going to happen.

Unfortunately I am exposed to a lot of people who are flakers.  (yeah, my spell check doesn't like that word)

A flaker is someone who says that they will do something and then later either totally forgets about doing the thing they said they were going to do or just before they were supposed to do it, says they now can't (and the reason isn't very good).

I wonder if this is just a homeschooling phenomena or if this happens with other folks too?

It seems that we either get a lot of folks who will sign up for our homeschooling classes and either forget that they've signed up or they schedule to do something else and are no longer available to come.  It gets really frustrating because as homeschoolers we struggle to be seen in the community as legitimate educators for our kids and when we get someone to give of their time it is easier to get them to do that if we have a sizable group, but if we say we are bringing a group of 20 kids + their parents and then the day comes and only 10 kids and parents actually show up it looks bad.  Also frequently you need to have a large group to get the discounted price.

I know that many of my homeschooling friends feel my pain.  I think that I get irritated by this so much because to me flaking is like lying.  Or maybe it seems as if something better came along.

I understand having to cancel if your kid gets sick...trust me, if your kid is sick I want you to stay home because there is nothing I hate worse that someone who shares cold germs.
I understand other emergencies.

What I don't understand is setting up an appointment when you've already said you would do my class.