The Playdate

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The day of the playdate finally came. She surprised herself by how relaxed She was about letting Baby Girl go to this family’s house. But the Mom was so wonderful and Little Man had such a good time last time, it felt right. You know how sometimes you just meet people and you click right away? And it feels like you’ve known this person forever? That’s how it felt with The Mom.

The Mom picked Baby Girl up from school and took her home with her. She was able to stay home with Sweet Pea and get an uninterrupted afternoon of work completed. It was wonderful. She was constantly looking at the clock though and wondering how the playdate was going. Was Baby Girl having fun? Behaving? Causing trouble? She also kept waiting for the phone to ring with the Mom on the other end begging Her to come pick her up. But that didn’t happen.

Before She knew it, the time had come for Her to go pick them up. The Mom said everything was great. They played, Baby Girl behaved and she was so glad she got to come over. She even fixed Baby Girl’s hair and commented on how beautiful and thick it was. This was clearly a wonderful woman. She would later gush to Him about this family and how they needed to become friends with the whole clan. They had three kids too, the Dad was a librarian and Mom was a speech pathologist, they had the same interests and most important of all, they had huge hearts. Sounded perfect to Her.

To Her this playdate marked a new beginning. Maybe Baby Girl would have real friends. Maybe she would get invited to parties and playdates and actually be able to go. Maybe She would have friends who understood Baby Girl and all that She felt too. Maybe They would actually have a life filled with good friendships for the whole family. She didn’t realize until this family came into Her life that She was sort of holding Her breath about family friendships. She felt very alone at this point in Her life. Like no one understood Her. Like people were afraid to be Her friend because they didn’t know what to say or do. Like She was diseased or something. Like She didn’t have any true friends. This one experience made Her feel like there was hope.