Play Date

One of the mom's from Laina's school organized a play date after school yesterday. I felt a bit like an outsider at the last get together involving fellow kinder parents, but I decided it would be good to get out in the sunshine.

We showed up, all 4 of us with Carter, with our junk food Sonic meals in hand and sat down to eat. None of the other people were eating yet, but I had skipped breakfast and my burger was getting cold. When everyone else began to sit down to eat I felt a bit like a bad mother. They had packed wonderful, healthy sacked lunches complete with papaya juice, broccoli, carrots and fruit cups (at least I had thought to grab a few wet wipes before we left so we wouldn't look like complete savages). I thought about bringing sandwiches, but we were out of bread and I hadn't made it to the store yet. So artery clogging grilled cheese and tator tots it was for my unfortunate family.

When I finally got tired of listening to conversations about people I didn't know, I decided to head off to the playground with Ethan and Carter. We had a blast going down the slides, "making castles" as Ethan called piling sand in mounds, and getting dizzy on the merry-go-round. I chased Ethan around as he yelled, "can't catch me, can't catch me" and tried to grab Carter through the bars on the play structure. We picked up the pods from the trees on the ground and rattled them pretending that they were snakes. Soon, I had a group of 6 or 7 kids around me and I made them all laugh at my childish ways. We even had an impromptu science lesson about the sand particles sticking to a magnet and a few lessons in manners and how to play nicely.

None of the other parents got off of the bench to enjoy this time with their kids. Heck, they didn't even know where their kids were half the time. I may not be the most responsible, nutritionally conscious mom out there, but I don't think that my kids will remember that when they get older. I think they'll remember that I took joy in them and that we had a good time. Maybe I 'm not so bad of a mom after all.