Once upon a time, long ago, (i.e. before kids) I remember going to parties and chatting with friends. I learned about their lives, their hopes, their interests. I shared my own.
Today we went to a 4 year old birthday party. It was lots of fun, but child wrangling (Check your local community college for classes on perfecting this art. There won't be any listings.) creates one serious issue in adult conversation. I am used to my partner and I taking 2 or 3 days to complete one story from our day. But at a party, it gets really apparent really quickly that not much of a connection can be made, no matter how much we want it. Following are some stories from the party. I am not holding back on you. This is as far as they got (damn it!).
1. The hostess hired a cleaning service that DIDN'T SHOW so they had to clean like crazy. By the way, they did a bang-up job. I am sure there are lots of juicy details about this, but I know none of them.
2. A friend's husband now travels 4 weeks at a time, leaving her alone with their 17 month old. She said its hard. Of course it is! I bet there are a TON of stories here. I didn't get to hear any of them. I wanted to give some support and encouragement. If you are reading this, man do I respect you for being able to do what you do. Parenting without any back up sounds impossible!
3. A friend is working on her bachelor's degree. She wants to go to grad school in my profession. Boy would I have some input to give her there. I really wanted to hear all about her dreams, plans, etc. What I got is pretty much what I wrote.
4. There were some notable people missing from this party, including the uncle of the birthday girls (Yes, a twin 4 year old birthday party. Twice the chaos for half the cost!). Considering that they have him wrapped around their little pinkies, there has to be a story here. I wonder what it was....
There were many more stories that didn't get finished, but you get the idea. It was so good to see everyone... I just wish I could have spent more time with them! The eternal desire of the parent with young children. Or maybe that's sleep.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
How Many Partial Conversations Equal One Conversation?
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Too funny. I have to tell you that my niece is 9 and my nephew is 11 and I haven't had a complete conversation with my sister in one sitting since before their births...not to scare you or anything. The good news is I'm able to converse in short, concise, sentences and also work on my long term memory skills in order to remember which part of which sentence goes with each story. Think of it as eternal exercise for the brain!
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