Socializing Your Child or Are You Lonely?

Blog Challenge Day 9: Share a picture of your friends

I don’t share photos of others on the blog without their permission.  And I didn’t get around to getting any permissions, so no photos today.  BUT I do have friends!  Mine come in categories:

High School Friends = A group of 5 of us that have known each other since high school and still get together a couple of times a year.  We are now accompanied by eleven (almost TWELVE) children and 5 husbands.

College Friends = My BFF came from the many people I met during the college days.  I have also become great friends with many of the wives of Andy’s friends and the wives of my college guy friends

Graduate School Friends = These are the two girlfriends that I met during my MBA time at Xavier.  The three of us still stay connected with not-frequent-enough lunches at Dewey’s.

Voicemail Buddy = Check out that story HERE.

Neighborhood Friends = I am lucky to have found a few women in the neighborhood that I truly love living so close to.  And yes, we do borrow sugar, share meals, etc.  It’s that kind of love.

Other Random Friends = including work friends (past and present), wives of Andy’s work friends, daycare mommy friends, virtual blogging friends, etc.

On the subject of “friends”, in talking with one of the SAHM on the list, she said she had a possible realization and therefore question about working moms…did we have to deal with play dates?  My answer = nope.  My kids have play dates all day long at daycare, so there really aren’t many (it’s actually very rare) requests for the weekends. 

My play dates are truly crafted by me and the general goal is to get together with one of my girlfriends.  Usually there are kids somewhere in the same age range as my own.

My friend apparently gets inundated with play date requests and frankly doesn’t have the time nor the energy for all of them with her busy schedule.  Her youngest daughter is in preschool a few hours a week and gets socialization.  And these play dates are the ones where both parents stick around.  So her theory (after a few of them) is that the women are just plain lonely. 

I never really thought of that!?!  But it makes sense to me.  Because when I’m home with my kids a lot, I need adult interaction!!  I’m just fortunate enough to have a lot of local friends to schedule play dates with…so I usually jump to them as opposed to reaching out to someone new.  BUT that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t reach out to someone that might be new to the neighborhood or area, etc.  For their sanity!

3 Responses to Socializing Your Child or Are You Lonely?

  1. never say never, but I have just ‘never’ seen myself as a play date kind of mom….
    we’ll see what the future holds! I know where I fall into this category of friends and am SO happy to have met you and your family. It certainly makes Cincinnati a more enjoyable place! Looking forward to our ‘play date’ tomorrow!! The kids will have blast! you should try to post the video of all of them dancing a few weeks back.

  2. We have a little of everything. Sometimes I want to chat with a friend while the kids get to play with their friends= win, win! Sometimes Josie wants to play with a buddy from preschool and although sometimes I need to be at home doing laundry, I want her to be playing with others her own age. We have people over our house too because I can still get the baby to nap.
    I let someone know if we have other things planned and I don’t sweat it too much.

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