Malice vs incompetence vs…

A few weeks ago I spoke with a mom at a playground. She mentioned that our library does a toddler storytime on Mondays. So the next Monday, when I checked the library schedule and saw nothing about it, I was confused. A quick call confirmed that they weren't doing it this week, or all summer: school is out, so most of the events are geared towards older kids now.

Part of me was upset. Not like frothing mad or anything, but annoyed. There was no event at all listed in that timeframe: why not keep doing it? After all, the toddlers still exist in the summer! It made no sense.

While I was telling my wife about it, she had the same thoughts I did. But it was when I heard my own exact thoughts vocalized by her that I thought: wait a minute… maybe I'm being really dumb here?

A quick alternate explanation jumped into my brain:

• There are only so many people on the library staff.
• Each person has only so much time in which to do their jobs and plan and execute events.
• Suddenly there are many new events for school-aged kids.
• Therefore, other events must be removed, even if the times do not overlap.

I don't know for a fact that this is why they canceled it for the summer, but just the fact that I could come up with this at all makes me think there is some rational reason.

Hanlon's Razor has betrayed me, again!