As friends who were pregnant together and had our babies around the same time, of course we dreamed of our kids playing together.
We started by taking pictures at every stage and capturing some very cute moments on video. We went on walks and to play at the park. There was even that time we did the family vacation thing for a weekend. We planned out their futures of getting together to be in sync with ours.
Then, the kids took on their own personalities.
Life doesn’t always work out the way we planned, especially when it comes to children. The play dates have gotten to be stressful and not fun.
Honestly, our kids are better off not being friends.
- They don’t play together. These kids are at the ages that they could be interacting. They are choosing not to. Your child goes one way and mine goes the other. They don’t even like the same things. He’s just not that into your kid.
- The name calling. Someone needs to stop and it’s not my kid. I am all for kids working their problems out but if someone kept calling me names over and over, I wouldn’t give them the time of day either.
- Your child keeps asking over and over when is it time for us to leave. We just got here 5 minutes ago.
- The Vocabulary Lesson. We both have different ways we speak to each other in the privacy of our own houses. Nothing like having a playdate with someone who has an older sibling and what is repeated. Thank you for teaching my kid one S word and you can thank us for teaching your kid the other one. I can hardly wait to see what is next.
- The Judgement Zone. As our kids have gotten older, things have changed in how we parent. Your questions about my lack of organic food and my questions about your obsession with it are getting in the way. To time out or not to? Electronics or none? The potty training conversations were a nightmare. Who knew that this would impact our get-togethers?
- Invite more people and see if that works. Nope. We still have issues. I would love to have a playdate with the other friends though.
- I hold my breath the entire time. Eventually when they do start to interact, it ends up in a couple of meltdowns or tantrums over something completely ridiculous. At least if I am at home when the melt down occurs, I can get to a mommy time out area. Preferably with my version of a sippy cup of mommy juice.
- My child does not ask to come back. I am thinking yours probably doesn’t either.
So who’s to blame? No one. Ever meet a kid who didn’t have issues? Same here. Maybe they are not the only ones having some growing pains…
It’s never good to let a friendship end like this.
Let’s get pregnant again and try with the next kids.
Stacey blogs about her thoughts and adventures about life at 40 over at 40wishesandcounting.com. It is far from over the hill. Most of the time anyway.