Every time I hit the local park, I feel like I just walked into my high school cafeteria. Except this time I don’t have any friends to sit with and size four is my son’s shoe size, not my dress size. The women at the park cluster in small groups around the benches, looking over the sartorial choices of the other women and their children. They also check out each other’s snacks and strollers. They talk about the local schools and how their house renovations are going. Sometimes they stop their conversations to react to their children, but it seems to be an interruption to them, not a purpose for being there (not unlike a high school girl’s reaction to tests and homework, really).
None of them talk to me. I follow my kids around. I wear sweats or jeans and a t-shirt. I don’t feed my kids at the park. I WALK there. My stroller was affordable. No one wants that freaky woman with the messy hair in their clique, apparently. In the high school politics of this playground, I am a total loser.
I wouldn’t mind, except that it means my kids don’t have playmates at the park. Zoe LOVES playing with other little girls. But like their mothers, these girls totally ignore us. So I can’t decide whether to dress up and try to fit in at the park, thereby insuring my daughter some playmates (and myself hours of conversation about clothes) or to just go to that park sparingly.
4 responses so far ↓
Merry Jelinek // May 23, 2007 at 3:24 pm
We have those kind of moms… thankfully we have the tee shirt wearing kind, too… (me, for one) And you will find this with girls - the ones whose moms are totally put together on a constant basis - those girls are also totally put together.. the cutest, and then most fashionable outfits, perfect hair and shoes… always neat..
Some of these moms are just as nice as you are, if you give them a chance… some, not so much… but whatever they are or are not, it’s pretty much a lock that their kids will follow suit - at least until their old enough to make their own decisions…
The question is, do you want your daughter to prioritize appearance over other things? Because I don’t know about you, but my kids play in dirt at the park… they run amok, play tag, run through sand, chuck wood chips, and generally come home needing a bath… who in their right mind would dress them up for that?
Merry Jelinek // May 23, 2007 at 3:26 pm
oy, that should read, “…at least until they’re old enough…”
I hate making those kind of typos.
Jerseygirl89 // May 23, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Thanks for the excellent reminders - and no, I’d much rather her have fun at the park (and in life) than look polished. But I’ve yet to see evidence that any of these women are nice - I’ve met plenty of put together moms who are, but they do not hang out at this park. It’s like the Stepford park or something.
Merry Jelinek // May 24, 2007 at 12:49 am
If you’re into chick lit, Jennifer Weiner has a novel out called, “Goodnight Nobody” with a pretty great rendition of the type of park mommies you’re talking about… Maybe she really has run across some of these, and has taken to skewering them in fiction
Leave a Comment