I attended playgroup last week. A friend organizes it at a park once a week and I thought it would be a good idea to get out of the house and socialize, so I went to the park and strapped The Bairn in the sling and attempted to make small talk with other moms. It was awkward. It was like being on a blind date. One of those blind dates you get set up on when you're still single at 30 and some well-meaning soul knows someone else who's single and figures that's all you really need in common. No matter that he loves Hummers and bodybuilding and girls who actually fix their hair and you love bicycles and reading and never fixing your hair. Same thing. Having a child brings us together and the other moms' unbelievable enthusiasm for imported water keeps us apart.
I did have a funny conversation with my friend about M(8)'s obsession with the Holy Family when she was wee and my friend's daughter's love of the name Jesus. Her daughter gave the name to one of their chickens and then the chicken died. She came to her mother and asked, Mommy, why did Jesus die, and my friend tried to give an appropriate theological response to her 3-year-old, who interrupted, protesting, No, no, Mommy, why did Jesus die. So, that was good at least.
3 comments:
You know, I'm actually really relieved to hear that it was awkward, because socializing with other moms at playgroup has always sounded really boring to me and I wondered what I was missing.
It will get easier but still, just having kids does not mean that people are like you at all. Poor dead chicken.
Katya--You're not missing much. It's not really a waste of time, because there are only so many ways to meet people when you have kids, but, yeah . . .
Eliana--I'm crossing my fingers for the library storytime crowd. Maybe they will be my people.
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