This will come to no surprise, but I needed a break from my dear sweet Layna who had been following me around the house relentlessly whining and getting into trouble. So, I went to McDonalds so that she could play with strangers’ kids in a semi-clean, enclosed area. (What? I saw them squirt the outside with bleach solution….one time)
So I am about to eat my bunless burger when the two ladies at a table nearby are talking, just as loud as can be.
“Dustin doesn’t feel pain. He is fearless.”
“Ella potty trained herself!”
“My child is oh so very well behaved and is polite to EVERYONE!”
“He always opens the door for me and every other person on the planet!”
“I decorated the entire house with decorations I made myself.”
“I did my Christmas shopping in July, wrapped everything in August, and made my Christmas cookies in September and just froze them so that I could free up December for putting up our extensive Christmas light display.”
“Organic!!!”
“No spanking!”
My brain! I was so annoyed. I was annoyed by their perceived “got-it-togetherness”. I was annoyed by the gloating. I was annoyed at their volume. I was annoyed that I felt the weird need to compare my parenting and mommness to these two! I quickly pushed it down, down, down where it belongs. It helped when I saw one of their children persistently trying to climb UP the slide, tumbling back down, crying, and then trying it again. These organic-eating, frozen cookie defrosting, potty-training super children were, as I discovered, quite similar to my own kid.
I was about to put my head down in annoyance when one of the moms came up to me and began talking to me about AJ. We talked about his delightfully solid-babyness, pediatricians, and baby teeth. The other mom joined and, as it turns out, we all live in Vail and have connections with the school district.
They gave me some wonderful inside info on starting Alayna at one of the preschools at some of the elementary schools in the district. They complimented Alayna’s haircut and cute pronunciation of “f’s” and I complimented their children's politeness. Yes, they really were very cordial, I had to admit.
This age old lesson of not judging books by their covers rang true once again. Next time, when we meet for our scheduled play date next week because we all got along so well….I will remember this. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment