PLAY DATE
Another failed scheme...
Wednesdays at 2:30 p.m.
That was the standing appointment—the timing was important to allow for the pickup of school-age siblings, travel time to deposit them at their rehearsals, practices, or lessons, and meet at the park with our pre-K children for an hour before picking them back up again. I have always loved a plan and having activities on my calendar. It was also a great opportunity to meet and socialize with other moms.
For years, we kept this schedule. Relationships formed and grew, a ton of parenting advice was exchanged, and our kids became friends, too. Our weekly meetings grew to include birthday parties and even some shared vacations.
I haven’t had pre-K aged kids for years and years, of course. Yet sometimes, I still miss those days. It seemed so easy. There were often different moms and kids each week, but the conversations were comforting, and the kids learned how to play independently and safely together.
As I was reliving my fond memories last week, I thought I would try to rekindle that feeling and start a puppy play group. Let me give you a little history behind what now seems like an unusual choice for me to make. I presented my husband with a puppy for our wedding anniversary last year.
It’s unusual because now that we are empty nesters, I was enjoying a lighter workload around the house. I had voiced my irritation frequently about the amount of dirt and fur in the house from when our daughter went off to college and her dog didn’t. She stayed home with us.
On the other hand, the puppy I gave my husband was awfully cute, weighing in at a mere eight pounds when we brought him home. Once I saw him, there was no turning back. My husband was amazed and announced that it was the best present I’d ever given him … so all the extra cleaning and training was worth it.
At first, I didn’t understand why nobody accepted my recent invitation to join the play group. To me, our puppy was the same fluffy, cuddly ball of fur that we brought home a year ago. Unfortunately, what everyone else saw was the hundred-pound, full-of-energy Rottweiler that he had grown into. Darn it! Puppy play group was not going to happen.
Never a quitter, I was even more determined to have something on my social calendar. Unfortunately, my next attempt wasn’t successful either.
I tried to start a dinner club.
My plan was to organize 10-12 couples, whereby one couple would host dinner each month either at their house or at a restaurant. I set about designing custom invitations that included party themes and recipe suggestions, along with coordinated signature cocktail ideas. I was a little nervous when I mailed out 15 invitations, wondering if all the couples would want to attend. After all, there are only 12 months to have monthly dinner parties. But just to be safe, I mailed out the three extra invites.
And then I waited …
AND WAITED.
Finally, I lamented to my husband how disappointed I was that I had not received a single reply.
And he responded that he wasn’t surprised, saying, “I don’t want to be set up on a play date either.”
