Monday 23 April 2012

Playdates and Mondays to Get You Down

Today is Monday. Really, it feels like Thursday. And this is despite Pedro having a three-day weekend and a date-night-with-babysitter yesterday. Why is it that it feels so stressful today? I have a terrible time with confrontation and I've had a few awkward moments this morning, which might account for why it feels like Thursday. I also just finished plucking the quilting out of a new blanket I'm sewing - tearing out  quilting that you just spent an hour putting in is also a great way to put yourself in a bad mood! Then I got a phone call from my neighbor wondering where I was. That's right - it was a scheduled playdate and she had been waiting for me for over an hour!


Isabella has been struggling at playgroup lately. She is an extremely sensitive little girl, so any altercation with another kid makes her not want to go for the following day. Matters are made worse by the fact that she is suddenly the only girl her age in the preschool now, her best friend Amelia just moved away, and her other best friend Sonny, a boy, suddenly wants to shun his girly side - which means Isabella, too. Also, she has at least two very difficult boys in her group. Boys that say naughty words to her, steal her stuff, and generally hurt her feelings. Despite the fact that the staff are very attentive and excellent in their skills, there is only so much you can do with such a dynamic. So we've decided to shop around for another setting for her to see how things go.

Anyway, I told my neighbor about her issues at the playgroup (her son also goes there a few days a week) and we decided to arrange for a playdate so that Isabella could form an alliance with another one of the boys so she is less excluded just for being a girl. And...I bungled it! So wrapped up in my quilt was I that I totally forgot about it and when she called, Isabella had just fallen fast asleep so we couldn't even rush down to road to make it right.


Also...can I just say this? There is something about the concept of a "playdate" that I really don't like. It's the formality of arranging play with each other's children...I would much rather call up my neighbor in a spare moment and have her send her kid over and let them just play in the absence of a time slot. Now that I've said that, I'll go further and just say I HATE PLAYDATES!!! But hey, despite the fact that we are all "stay at home moms" who hardly stay at home - what choice do we have? We're stuck to the schedule and the inevitable forgetfulness that happens when you have a child and a lot of things to plan for. Sigh.