The Mamas and the Papas
Yesterday we went for a birthday party of a 3-year old girl - daugher of 2 of Robi's seniors from law school. The cutest little girl i have seen in a really long time. I believe this was the first birthday that they were cutting a cake for her, simply cos she had suddenly realised that birthdays meant that you could have cakes and blow out candles and stuff!
K was excited all day about the party and he had quite a blast, except for his brief disappointment at how short the birthday cake cutting session was. He would have liked an en core at least 5 more times!
Robi and I had a good time too. We met (for the first time I might add) so many young parents all in the same place (there were about 7 sets of parents of kids of ages ranging from 2 months to 8 years). Before motherhood, I always used to tell myself that when I became a mother I wouldn't keep hanging out with other parents cos all parents do is talk about their children and hence they are boring! But, yesterday was great for several reasons:
(1) I realised that young parents are as much fun - (they like to drink, joke and listen to music and talk about a wide range of topics which dont include their children) just like other young non-parent people. Well this, is something I knew on a smaller level c/o how Robi and I are now that we are parents - but it was nice to see that all other parents were exactly the same.
(2) You can take your kid along while meeting other people with kids (without worrying too much about how they would behave) cos these are people who understand exactly how tough it is to prevent a little child from spilling things, making too much noise and moving around furniture.
(3) Your child also has a good time, cos usually there are a whole new set of toys for him to explore and a set of new and interesting little people to hang out with (read as grab toys from, laugh with and at each other's silly moves etc). This actually gives you some time to relax, more than while hanging out at a non-parent's house, cos there, you have the added responsibility of entertaining your child while trying to make conversation with the adults.
(4) There is always food intended for young kids, so you dont have to plan and carry food from home or worse - go scouting for food which your toddler can eat and embarass the host for not having anything suitable.
(5) You pick up a whole bunch of very interesting and valuable tips.- specially if you're visiting parents of slightly older kids. Ofcourse there are obvious tips like what are the good play schools for toddlers. But, there are also some non-obvious ones which may be picked up. For instance, we learnt yesterday that JetX is a terribly violent cartoon channel which we should prevent K from watching and that it is tougher to kick out children who are used to sleeping with their parents in the A/C room and make them sleep in their own non A/C rooms. We also got the number of a guy who comes home and paints stars on the ceiling and other cartoon characters on the walls.
(6) These are people to whom you can share child stories with without worrying that they are getting too bored or that they have no clue what you are talking about. I learnt the important lesson that it is ok to talk about your child (as long as you dont talk only about him), cos once you are a parent, your child is the most important/one of the most impotant focuses in your life and there's nothing wrong with that - cos you made an informed decision to move to that next phase of your life.
K was excited all day about the party and he had quite a blast, except for his brief disappointment at how short the birthday cake cutting session was. He would have liked an en core at least 5 more times!
Robi and I had a good time too. We met (for the first time I might add) so many young parents all in the same place (there were about 7 sets of parents of kids of ages ranging from 2 months to 8 years). Before motherhood, I always used to tell myself that when I became a mother I wouldn't keep hanging out with other parents cos all parents do is talk about their children and hence they are boring! But, yesterday was great for several reasons:
(1) I realised that young parents are as much fun - (they like to drink, joke and listen to music and talk about a wide range of topics which dont include their children) just like other young non-parent people. Well this, is something I knew on a smaller level c/o how Robi and I are now that we are parents - but it was nice to see that all other parents were exactly the same.
(2) You can take your kid along while meeting other people with kids (without worrying too much about how they would behave) cos these are people who understand exactly how tough it is to prevent a little child from spilling things, making too much noise and moving around furniture.
(3) Your child also has a good time, cos usually there are a whole new set of toys for him to explore and a set of new and interesting little people to hang out with (read as grab toys from, laugh with and at each other's silly moves etc). This actually gives you some time to relax, more than while hanging out at a non-parent's house, cos there, you have the added responsibility of entertaining your child while trying to make conversation with the adults.
(4) There is always food intended for young kids, so you dont have to plan and carry food from home or worse - go scouting for food which your toddler can eat and embarass the host for not having anything suitable.
(5) You pick up a whole bunch of very interesting and valuable tips.- specially if you're visiting parents of slightly older kids. Ofcourse there are obvious tips like what are the good play schools for toddlers. But, there are also some non-obvious ones which may be picked up. For instance, we learnt yesterday that JetX is a terribly violent cartoon channel which we should prevent K from watching and that it is tougher to kick out children who are used to sleeping with their parents in the A/C room and make them sleep in their own non A/C rooms. We also got the number of a guy who comes home and paints stars on the ceiling and other cartoon characters on the walls.
(6) These are people to whom you can share child stories with without worrying that they are getting too bored or that they have no clue what you are talking about. I learnt the important lesson that it is ok to talk about your child (as long as you dont talk only about him), cos once you are a parent, your child is the most important/one of the most impotant focuses in your life and there's nothing wrong with that - cos you made an informed decision to move to that next phase of your life.
posted by lawyeramma at 1:07 AM
2 Comments:
hit the nail on the head. the OA and I made that discovery some time back which is why we love our friends circle and are building on it!
That sounds like fun. we have just one couple friend who are parents.... :(
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