I had my first playdate

I know it may sound odd that a Mom of two is writing about her first playdate, but we are not the normal dual-income family. I work full-time from home and my hubby works off hours so he can be home with our kids 3 days a week.

Today was a little different. Hubby met with a recruiter about a job that might turn our lives upside down. For over 2 years we've gotten used to our odd schedule and as much as I have prayed for more of a normal "routine" in our routine, it would be weird if it all changed. But at the same time there could be some huge benefits to this new opportunity...time will tell because hubby has to actually go on the job interview and be offered the job. I tend to think WAY ahead. I also see tragedy but that's a different blog post.

So, today while he met with the recruiter I was in charge of the kids for their playdate down the street with the other stay-at-home Dad and his two kids. I had a stomach ache this morning.

My worst fear, in fact, was not that my kids would misbehave but that I wouldn't be able to think of anything to say and playdate Dad and I would sit in silence. Crickets. Birds chirping. Trash truck from 6 streets away could be heard. I thought I was going to throw up as we made our way down the street. My kids were so excited I was on playdate duty that they couldn't wait to show me off. I feared there was going to be some playdate ritual where I had to recite all the Disney Princesses to the girls and correctly identify all the toy trucks to the boys...I was going to fail my first playdate. I wanted to run in the other direction. Ok, here we go. Boy, was I surprised when I wasn't forced to dress up as Cinderella when we arrived. We made our way to their back yard and the kids ran off together to play on the swing set and quickly forgot Mom was a virgin playdater. Hey, kids, remember me? Help!

After the kids took off like lightening, playdate Dad and I sat down on their patio furniture and I could feel the beads of sweat on my neck. Here goes:

"So, where's hubby?"

"Oh, he had a meeting with a recruiter in Burlington so you're stuck with me today."

Was that going to be it? Would there be no more conversation to be had? Much to my surprise - playdate Dad didn't think I was a complete moron and we actually started what became a very relaxing and fun conversation.

We talked about our home projects for the summer, comiserated on our 5 year olds finding their "voice" (also known as talking back), chatted a bit about gardening struggles and creatures in the night eating our flowers, and did a little referee-ing with our kids. Before I knew it, 90 minutes had past and it was time to head home for lunch. This was a piece of cake. No awkward moments or weird grins and nods. We were just two parents on a sunny day, hanging out with our two kids, and enjoying the conversation.

Oh God. I should have talked about sports and cars, right???