Playgroup: Tending and Befriending

Coffee Time
It’s a Wednesday morning in April 1989 and it’s my turn this week to host “playgroup.” My toddler has me up before dawn and the baby is still sleeping. I have tons of time to bake muffins, tidy up, and put on a fresh pot of coffee. At around ten o’clock the moms and babies begin to arrive.

The five toddlers clamber downstairs to the playroom to dig into the myriad of Lego, Fisher Price, Ghostbusters, and Ninja Turtle toys awaiting them. Oh boy, there will be a big tidy up when this is over.

Let’s Talk
The five moms gather around the kitchen table, some of us with babes in arms, some expecting number two or three. The talking began as they walked in the door. All of us trying not to miss a piece of any of the two or three conversations going on at once. Our eldest of the moms (we will call her One for this article) always makes a point of stopping and going around the table checking in on each of us and any stories left pending since last weeks gathering.

Our conversations range from kids clothes, eating habits, toilet training, work, housekeeping, cooking, marriage, sleep, sex, extended family, health … you name it. We have three or four hours a week to get it all in between our toddlers needs and squabbles, babies crying or spitting up, and a few diaper changes.

Our Treat
One topic that needs to get settled on this particular April morning is our birthday night out. All five of us are born April/May and we have begun a tradition that we go out to dinner with no kids or husbands each year for our birthdays. It is a big night for us to get to talk for over three hours without interruption and having to cook a meal.

This birthday tradition continues today, twenty-two years after we first met in pre-natal class. We have nine children amongst us who have all grown up into amazing young adults. Two of us have moved further away, but all of us are dedicated to what has now evolved into a birthday weekend (and one evening at Christmas time).