With husband traveling, you are juggling both home and office front alone. You rush home from back to back meetings to cook for your children, only to realize that there was a project due today in school and you have to pay the field trip fees that will go day after! Sound familiar? If only we had easy reminders about things to do at school, our life would be so easy!
I am sailing in a similar boat! My younger son started school this year and to avoid sending him in school transportation, we decided to enroll him in a preschool close to our house. Things were fine initially, but once the school routine started I started feeling the pressure.
My older child has a diary system, so all the homework, assignment communication etc. happens through that, while the pre-school had an email system, with no other means of communication.
My official communication happens from my business id. So, overall I had to keep track of three different communication systems to stay on top of all information. While my older child would remind me of most matters, it wasn’t the case with my younger child. There have been times when I have missed the school communication and sent my child to school in school uniform, only to realize that it was ‘yellow day or green day’ and the child had to be dressed in that color.
The extra time taken to come back, change and go back to school have messed with my office work big time! With husband traveling frequently, I could not rely on him to give me a reminder. How I wished there was a simpler and quicker way of communication that could give me reminders and help me stay on track!
I even discussed this with other parents from the pre-school only to realize that many parents were struggling with this matter. Most parents were working and almost everyone had given the school their personal Id. So the parents would regularly miss the communication on personal ID. As most parents were working, the children were in day-care and by the time they went home, they would forget about such school information that needed to be communicated to the parents.
We decided to discuss it with the school management. The pre-school heard us out and then informed us that they are looking for an SMS based service that will help them communicate with parents. They were checking the feasibility of it and the parents response to such an idea.
The centre head explained that with MSG91 they would be able to send bulk messages to parents. These messages will be real time and hassle-free to the school too! I was buoyed by the idea of receiving an SMS from the school reminding me about the Green Day, one day earlier!
The whole idea was so convenient! I have my phone close to me all through the day. While in office or even during a hectic schedule, checking up latest messages isn’t too much of a hassle. Add to it the fact that the school can send multiple reminders, it is convenient for me as I get instant updates and the same is easy for the school as they can send bulk messages to all parents and even know if they were delivered successfully.
We loved the idea and I am looking forward to the pre-school implementing the same. Once the idea is implemented I can see it being a lifesaver for me that will offer me important updates about school homework, projects, events celebrated and even fee payment alerts!