Thursday, October 22, 2009

One mom.

Going back to Jaysen's birthday party, I am amazed at how many parents just drop their kids off and run like Forrest Gump. I know I may be a tad overprotective, but even if Jaysen didn't have the issues he has, I don't know how comfortable I'd feel just dropping him off at someone's house whom I've never met. And I'm usually the only mom at other birthday parties.

Aside from my friends, one mom stayed.
One mom.

Kids were having a blast, the mom and I strike up a little chat.
Then the magic words came.
"My son has expressive receptive language disorder."

Ah.
That's why you stayed.

Needless to say, we bonded.
We watched how each other interacted with our children, and frequently gave each other that knowing look. We talked about school, the pace of the classroom, the supports in place, and our children's strengths and weaknesses. We talked about getting the boys together for friendship and pragmatics.

I explained Jaysen's affinity for VHS tapes and DVD's.
She told me about her son's love for the color red.

We understood each other.

As they were leaving, I noticed her son becoming a little anxious.
He was frantically looking through the leftover treat bags.
She was telling him there weren't anymore with suckers in them.
Still, he searched, and I could see on her face, that she was making that decision.


The one where you have to plan your escape because you know your child is going to flippin freak out. The one where you run through every scenario in your head, desperately trying to figure out which one will preserve even a shred of dignity. The one where you wonder if you'll ever be invited back to another birthday party ever again.

I beeline to my candy stash, and present the boy with a sucker.
A red sucker.
He smiles at me.
And with a look of utter relief, so does his mom.

8 comments:

Niksmom said...

This SOOO totally makes up for the school photo snafu.

datri said...

Man, I just love it when someone else just gets it! Great save!

DJ Carrera said...

I think you just got back to "rock star" level of motherhood with that save! Nice!

Corrie Howe said...

I agree with Niksmom and Piscesgirl. Nice recovery

Meg said...

Why does this make me tear up? Probably because I'm usually that mom explaining to my son that there are no BLUE suckers/balloons/toys in his treat bag and it's okay. Luckily, I have friends that "get it", too, and we usually walk out with something blue. You are a true friend for seeing her and not making her ask for the red sucker or leave pre-meltdown.

Anonymous said...

We spent 2.5 hours yesterday evening getting to know the parents hosting a party Younger Teen wanted to attend. Turned-out we really connected. And all the other parents just dropped their children off.

Even as a teen, not dropping our child if we don't know the adults. Guess we are in the minority. Barbara

Marla said...

I have wondered this exact same thing. Why do all the parents take off? Totally freaks me out. Sounds like you made a new friend which is always cool.

Marshella said...

At Deklan's birthday party, when parents dropped off their kids, I would get a contact number of whomever was supposed to pick the child up. A parent actually asked me why I needed it and I had to explain that if anything happened I could get someone to come get the child. Then last week my oldest had her first Halloween sleep over this year. When she asked if she could go and told me what the plans were, I called the mom where the girls were going to stay. We're friends, but I would have called anyway. Wanted to make sure she knew about the sleepover plans and was good with it. She was, but I was the ONLY mom that called to check things out. That was unbelievable. The other moms just let their girls go and assumed all was well.