The Playdate Mission

Okay to be honest, this is a blog about nothing... We are on a playdate mission because we have been neglecting our friends over the past couple of months of cold and occasionally wet weather!

After a gruelling couple of days at work, we have filled up our 4 day weekend with playdates. Boo has been so excited at the prospect of getting out and about and catching up.

On Thursday we took my grandma out for morning tea. Okay this was not a real playdate but the cafe has a playground attached... Boo calls her Omi (its our German heritage) and always corrects me on my German pronunciations with a little condescending look. Thing is her pronunciation is correct. When she became a language expert, I'm not quite sure???

Yesterday, was with Nic and her kids. We have known each other for 20 years, she used to be fun and we had things in common... Now she is the 'perfect' mum and our parenting styles and our lives are world's apart.

Nic's children have non-flexible routines, they have a hot meal for lunch, she bakes daily (I'll give her that one, her eldest has severe egg allergies), they eat at specific times, they are in bed by 6.30pm, and her husband doesn't do things the way she wants it done (housework, shopping, caring for the kids etc) so she does it all. Of course this requires a nanny, so she can keep her house looking like a mausoleum. However, keeping a nanny is proving to be a problem, either they don't put the toys back in their specific places, they let the children do things she won't let them do, or their uni timetables this semester seem to clash (that has been the excuse of two of them for leaving).

We took the kids to the park yesterday, it was 3.30 in the afternoon. The reason we couldn't go earlier is because her nearly 5 year old was having his afternoon sleep!!!

She sets up a picnic table with containers of cut strawberries, rockmelon and watermelon, brings out the scones she baked earlier (complete with jam and cream), and offers a tea or coffee. Boo is just lucky, I have brought along her water bottle. None of the food was eaten by the way. To make me feel more like a bad mother, she pulls out hats for her kids and insists they wear them... we were in the shade the playground was shaded and the UV index was low (justification for why I had no hat for my child).

I was frowned upon for not worrying that Boo is so little but climbing on the high ladders with her eldest, this is not the first time we have had the discussion Boo's climbing, and Boo is very well practiced. The look said it all when I helped her 2 year old swing on the flying fox though!!! Miss 2 thought it was fantastic, and did it over and over again...

It was hard work, thankfully I was going out for some drinks following!

Today we had another playdate with mutual friends of Nic's and mine. It was just so much more relaxed, we let the kids fill up on cup cakes brought from the bakery (no fruit in sight), the three of us sat in the sun gossiping, and the kids messed up the playroom, ran around the garden, and basically had a great time. Now that's a much preferable playdate...

Tomorrow we are off to see the girly girls as Boo calls them. They are my cousins 3 daughters, and my god-daughters. They dote on Boo and she loves them to bits. I can just sit back and gossip and know that Boo is being well entertained at their place.

We also have another playdate pencilled for the afternoon, if we can manage it...

I was going to blog about something else but I wanted photos, and the disc seems to have vanished!