What do you do when there is another mom at the swimming pool that wants your attention while your child is in swim lessons and your other two children want you to read them each their own book in your one lap that is already full of a gestating baby? One can't not talk to another person who is insisting on it - especially a smiling, happy, perky, nice person. But if I don't not talk to her then an amazing kaboom inevitably happens. Today it was my one year old. He threw an absolute, 100 percent, no-holds-barred, everyone-look-at-us type of flailing fit. It started with his sister trying to steal a toy, so he hit her, so I got after him, so he got after me and it just wratcheted up from there.
I could try to sit away from her, but there is only an eight by three foot area of shade that all us mother's are huddled up in and if you get out of that shade you could sweat out all the water from your body and shrivel into nothingness in about twenty seconds. I could fake deafness, but I already gave away that I hear a couple of days ago. Maybe I should start giving really weird answers to her questions - like, "yeah, when my kids are teething I usually set them on a tree branch facing the andromeda star formation for three hours and twenty-six minutes after 12:01 p.m. because that is when star power is most capable of dental healing."
But really, she is a nice person. What do I do? She doesn't mean to be making my life harder. Help.
2 comments:
I have an idea: wear giant headphones and pretend you can't here her. Really, I don't know. I always sit by the chatty cathy's (maybe I secretly am one myself). I think you just have to kind of not participate in the conversation, and not feel bad about it because you're not trying to be rude, you're trying to take care of your kids. Oh, and take lots of snacks and toys in a separate bag for each kid. :)
Yeah - I'm often afraid my problem is that I will chat back. I let Nan choose out some of her own toys today and that helped - having her own bag would probably put her over the moon with independent joy - I'll have to do it. Was it Dr. Jekyl or Mr. Hyde that was the scary one. Anyhow - Bri wasn't that one today. Phew.
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