Being a mom is a full time job, and being a working mom is like working 2 full time jobs. I mean basically I am sharing custody of my child with her daycare teachers; they get week days and I get nights and weekends. But unfortunately I have come to terms with this because there really is no alternative right now. We can’t live on one income, therefore, I work. It’s a simple equation, and while I am missing out on so many things (did she really take her first steps at daycare? Were we the ones to witness her first words? How many times has she rolled over?), this is life as I have come to know it. I have accepted it and moved on. But I am angry...
Now, you may be asking yourself, why is she angry? Well for this simple reason: every activity in our area designed for toddlers is meant for the stay at home mom. For example, the public library offers all these wonderful free activities such as Library Babies and Puppet Shows and Toddler Story Time, but they are all between the hours of 9am and 5pm Monday thru Friday, when the majority of the free world is at work. Ok, let’s do swim lessons again, those were fun when we did them last winter. Oh wait, the fall schedule has the Parent/Child classes listed as every Thursday from 10 – 10:30…. Ooh! How about Mommy and Me dance lessons (which sounds awesome by the way)? Nope, sorry, working moms need not apply. (However, here is a screenshot of the schedule though for any SAHMs reading this who may be interested in going and having our fun).
In an effort to try to find fun activities and play groups for us, I joined a local mommy’s group back in December. They advertised on their website that they have lots of weekend events and parties and I thought I would go ahead and pay the fee and join. Well, I have been a member for nearly 9 months and do you want to know how many of their events/activities I have been able to participate in? 0! That’s how many! They even have their holiday parties on weekdays! Sure they have weekend activities, for mommies only! But if I wanted to go to a movie or out for a drink I would rather do it with my husband or BFFs. I didn’t join a mommy and me group to learn to knit or decorate cakes. How exactly does one involve their 1 year old in knitting? But the best part, wait for it… I saw a post on their site about starting a weekend playgroup. So I replied that I was interested and wanted more details. A week later I get an email stating that only one other mom was interested in a weekend play group! Really? Only one other mom, out of their over 200 members, works? Are we on some kind of endangered species list that I am not aware of?
So me and this other mom, let’s call her Jane, exchange emails and I find out she has a son that is nearly 3, which isn’t exactly ideal because at the time Bri was only 12 months old, but ok, whatever, we’ll make something work. We played email tag a few times volleying back and forth over the when, where and what details and I guess I broke protocol or something because when I did not instantly reply to Jane, she emailed me back with an “I guess you don’t want to meet up after all-I thought you wanted to have a playdate-Thanks for nothing” email and she copied the head (president?) of the mommy group like she was tattling on me?!?!?! This was a few months ago but has been festering in the back of my mind like an open sore since then. And now, it just angers me more!
Cold weather is coming and I would love to find some sort of enriching, fun activity for Brianne and I to do together to help us bond as mother and daughter and to wile away the cold hours of winter. I suppose I will just have to keep buying those lottery tickets and crossing my fingers that my early retirement wishes are fulfilled by some random numbers on little white balls.
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