Dear Alice,
I apologize if my attempt at humor and jock-u-larity to ease things up put you off.
On a similar topic, for your own notes;
" If you're too busy pushing each other to help me out, I will find other teachers."
....Perhaps you don't realize how off putting that sounded. Seems to be a country mile from being confused with sounding gracious in the least.
Namaste,
Michael