So what the heck happened with Jealous Playgroup Mommy, you ask?
A few weeks ago, I met up with her new clique, er... playgroup and it was pretty much a disaster. Four sets of mommies and tots were invited to her house for the first play date, from there she had already created a schedule of who would host subsequent playgroups and when. No, she didn't bother to ask if these dates would work for the hostess first...
One had to cancel at the last minute because of a sick kiddo and the other went on some random tirade about how children's immunizations are made from aborted fetus' and that's why she won't vaccinate her daughter....
um, shrug.....
Unable to politely break away from this long-winded, crazy stream of rants that I wasn't quite following in the first place, JPM was left to wrangle the boys who had since wandered into another room...
A room where JPM, apparently, not only keeps fragile, delicately hand-painted breakables at toddler level, but a very sharp hook on the end of a long stick that she uses for her plantation shutters... also at toddler level, by the way. I was able to break away in time to rescue my son from the hook stick. It had "it's only fun until someone loses an eye" written all over it.
Once the boys were brought back into the playroom, JPM's son started beating on my son with a plastic bat and ramming him with a toy lawn mower... I was quick to jump in, but I could tell JPM was getting pretty stressed out.
At one point Ranting Mommy asked if this meeting time worked for us (it doesn't) because it really didn't work for her either, but JPM was quick to jump in too... That is, to inform us that we are NOT changing the time.
It started to rain as Ranting Mommy and I made our gestures to leave, but JPM couldn't have gotten rid of us fast enough. The two of us did the rest of our goodbye-ing outside as we each held our kids in the drizzle.... promising to "try and make it again next time" and "we should go to lunch before then", blah, blah, blah. My son ended up missing his afternoon nap all together and was still miserable because of it days later.
Lesson: Missed naps pay forward. Respect the nap.
A few days later, I "formally" withdrew, informing the other mommies that it just wasn't going to work out. JPM wasn't the slightest bit phased by it. I, at least, expected an obligatory "aww, that stinks. We'll miss you and your son"...
Nothing.
Frankly, it was almost seemed like she wanted me to quit the group, but I don't care. It is such a relief to be unshackled from this regularly scheduled misery. It was about time someone put an end to it...
The next day, Ranting Mommy confided in me that it wasn't really that fun for her either and she was thinking of dropping out too. What can I say? Nobody likes dealing with a pain in the ass.
So there you have it-- the big anti-climactic break-up story of me and my play group. Hopefully, JPM and I can both get past this and "just friends" again...
The outlook is sunny. She called the other day just to chat about non-playgroup things- inquiring about getting together for dinners like we used to and catching me up on the gossip. The very next day, she was supposed to drop by, then totally blew me off. Sigh
Timely enough, the May issue of American Baby features an article on dealing with difficult playgroups (and difficult playgroup mommies). I couldn't find a link to the story to post here, but trust me, I could have written it considering...
A few weeks ago, I met up with her new clique, er... playgroup and it was pretty much a disaster. Four sets of mommies and tots were invited to her house for the first play date, from there she had already created a schedule of who would host subsequent playgroups and when. No, she didn't bother to ask if these dates would work for the hostess first...
One had to cancel at the last minute because of a sick kiddo and the other went on some random tirade about how children's immunizations are made from aborted fetus' and that's why she won't vaccinate her daughter....
um, shrug.....
Unable to politely break away from this long-winded, crazy stream of rants that I wasn't quite following in the first place, JPM was left to wrangle the boys who had since wandered into another room...
A room where JPM, apparently, not only keeps fragile, delicately hand-painted breakables at toddler level, but a very sharp hook on the end of a long stick that she uses for her plantation shutters... also at toddler level, by the way. I was able to break away in time to rescue my son from the hook stick. It had "it's only fun until someone loses an eye" written all over it.
Once the boys were brought back into the playroom, JPM's son started beating on my son with a plastic bat and ramming him with a toy lawn mower... I was quick to jump in, but I could tell JPM was getting pretty stressed out.
At one point Ranting Mommy asked if this meeting time worked for us (it doesn't) because it really didn't work for her either, but JPM was quick to jump in too... That is, to inform us that we are NOT changing the time.
It started to rain as Ranting Mommy and I made our gestures to leave, but JPM couldn't have gotten rid of us fast enough. The two of us did the rest of our goodbye-ing outside as we each held our kids in the drizzle.... promising to "try and make it again next time" and "we should go to lunch before then", blah, blah, blah. My son ended up missing his afternoon nap all together and was still miserable because of it days later.
Lesson: Missed naps pay forward. Respect the nap.
A few days later, I "formally" withdrew, informing the other mommies that it just wasn't going to work out. JPM wasn't the slightest bit phased by it. I, at least, expected an obligatory "aww, that stinks. We'll miss you and your son"...
Nothing.
Frankly, it was almost seemed like she wanted me to quit the group, but I don't care. It is such a relief to be unshackled from this regularly scheduled misery. It was about time someone put an end to it...
The next day, Ranting Mommy confided in me that it wasn't really that fun for her either and she was thinking of dropping out too. What can I say? Nobody likes dealing with a pain in the ass.
So there you have it-- the big anti-climactic break-up story of me and my play group. Hopefully, JPM and I can both get past this and "just friends" again...
The outlook is sunny. She called the other day just to chat about non-playgroup things- inquiring about getting together for dinners like we used to and catching me up on the gossip. The very next day, she was supposed to drop by, then totally blew me off. Sigh
Timely enough, the May issue of American Baby features an article on dealing with difficult playgroups (and difficult playgroup mommies). I couldn't find a link to the story to post here, but trust me, I could have written it considering...
