With some reluctance I packed my two kids into the Ford Freestyle and headed to an indoor play place this morning. My playgroup had decided to meet there today instead of the local park for our first get together. As you all know, motherhood does change you and you find yourself making incredible acts of self-sacrifice. However, one change I hadn't thought about was having to give up my antisocial behavior so that my kids would have a chance to make new friends. I'm perfectly happy to be a hermit in my house with some cats and piles of good books to read. However, once I had kids some part of my brain I never knew existed started urging me to get out and hang out with other moms so that my poor kids wouldn't be doomed to a friendless life. One problem: a lot of moms in my area are uber-wealthy. Sure, they may show up at the playground in jeans or sweats but they are expensive jeans and sweats with nary a hole in sight. They have manicures and pedicures and suspiciously smooth-looking legs. How do they get their hair that perfect in the morning? They seem to have the money and time to exercise unwanted pregnancy pounds away and they're constantly talking about this house renovation, addition or furniture purchase or some fantastic vacation they're planning. Um, I definitely don't blend.
The local Mom's club got started up again a couple of weeks ago with the end of summer. I had joined a couple years ago before I knew that they were a bunch of former cheerleaders with endless energy and enthusiasm for planning and activities. Although I didn't attend meetings very frequently I kept paying my dues because I really do enjoy taking the kids on an occasional field trip in the hopes that they can make some friends. Anyway, I tried joining a playgroup in the beginning before I found out what type of folks were in this club and quickly bowed out of the group once I discovered I really didn't fit in. When the e-mail went out in August talking about forming new playgroups I sent an e-mail out suggesting they form a kids with food allergies playgroup. Like I assumed, there wasn't any interest and, thus, no special playgroup. However, the unexpected did happen and I was placed in a playgroup. I wrote to all the women and explained my son's allergies requesting that all get-togethers be peanut-free. They were willing to go along with this so I figured I'd give it a shot. To my surprise, I actually liked the women I met today. They weren't pretentious or fake and I enjoyed the conversations we had. They also have cats and dogs so they've got to be good people, right? The kids had a blast playing on the climbing equipment, crawling in the ball pit (ewwww!!!) and riding on a mini-merry-go-round. So, I'm left wondering, did some normal women join the mom's club or did I change? Should I be unsettled if I'm the one who changed? I think I'm still the whack-a-do I always used to be. After all, how many other moms peeled out of the parking lot blasting Nirvana instead of Raffi? I'm still me (dammit)!
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