It's school holidays here in New Zealand. My daughter's swimming and music classes have stopped but playgroup is still running. However yesterday I decided not to take her to playgroup and spontaneously phoned up a couple of MOO friends from our antenatal class for a catch-up.
It ended up being a great thing to do. I think both my daughter and I appreciated a change in routine and she got on well with the other two little girls (one of which she sees weekly anyway). I could feel the tension melting away as I walked in a different direction to playgroup to meet my MOO friends at the playground! Although playgroup has and still is a great place for my daughter, it has been a challenging environment to be in for this SI since it is infested with MOTs, MOTHS and MOFs.
I was chatting with one of the MOOs yesterday about how bored and lonely our girls get at home and how they have clicked that home is often where other children aren't. My daughter has said "yucky home" after a short outing once, clearly not done with being out and about. But we discussed how when there is just one child you have to work a little harder with lots of playdates etc to keep the child happy socially.
On Monday night I was chatting to a MOT as we were setting our bikes up for a spinning class. She had a twelve and a thirteen old and said they pretty much just entertained themselves when they were small. I commented that with one child I was very often the playmate. It seems hard for the average MOT, MOTH, or MOF to comprehend just how hard it can be to keep a child on their own stimulated. No doubt this is because all they know is the chaos of two or more children.
I met up with another MOO friend last night for something to eat and a chick flick outing. It was great - I really enjoyed a girlie outing. I do cherish my MOO friends as I don't feel like the odd one out and obviously we are faced with similar issues. Also we are in different places in our lives. Us MOOs are out doing night-courses, going to the gym etc whereas most MOTs and MOTHs I know are a lot more house-bound.
I don't intentionally estrange myself from my MOT friends. The truth is I seem to have gravitated towards my local MOO friends at this time apart from my MOT-neighbour who I see regularly. There is a different dynamic with MOTs and MOOs and us MOOs are a lot more flexible in our schedules so coordinating a get-together is pretty simple. However I am planning to drop in on a MOT friend this morning who had her second baby just a couple of weeks ago which I'm looking forward to. I also am catching up with two other MOT friends these holidays whose school term weeks are pretty busy. I find with MOTs and MOTHs that I often travel to them - they hardly come to me which makes sense, I guess, since I just have one child to cart around.
I have found some peace around my surgery. I've been thinking how my ovary is the size of a walnut and this cyst could be around the size of a tennis ball so it's not surprising really that things aren't working as they should with my poor ovary being overshadowed like that!
No comments:
Post a Comment