That's what my daughter told me last week as she cried in her bed. She was missing her cousins, her bff's, her mimi, heck even her teacher. We chatted about how it was ok to miss someone and to try to talk to them but we need to find new friends to play with here. "Well you're not trying to find friends mommy."
Point taken. This weekend, we tried some family time at the pool. It was impossible to relax with a power washer and leaf blower going non-stop (every Saturday for the next two months...) and the water was a little cold and a little dirty for me and Dave. So we came home. I asked Faith if she wanted me to bring some of her little girl friends to the pool (getting me off the hook to swim!), but I'd have to go meet and ask their parents. Maybe mommy would meet a friend and we'd get to know some parents.
Her first friends mom was pretty nice. The younger brother came running out wearing nothing but superman underwear and she didn't freak out. So she seemed pretty cool, but busy. Then on to the next house where two more of her little friends lived. There was no mom...just a pop-pop, 6 kids including a newborn and two others in foster care. The girls told me all of this on the 30 second walk over. Pop-pop was very kind, asked me if I was sure I wanted to take them to the pool, because they'd been told they weren't allowed to use it because of fines for leaving bikes in the yard, trash cans at the curb, etc. Lucky for me, I am allowed 5 guests, so we were good to go. My poor kid was probably praying "Dear God do not let an old lady tell my mom the kids aren't allowed...and if she does please don't let my mom use curse words."
So I took 4 pre-teens to the pool (that was 70 degrees) and they played even while following all the silly rules (no running, no jumping, no horseplay, no yelling, etc etc etc). The pool cleaner even let them go in the hot tub since they were being so polite and sweet.
Of course peace doesn't last too long. A few boys their age came in with their dad. Another Yankee, transplant from Manhattan. "After I almost got extinguished on 9/11 I decided to do something more quiet." Literally his second sentence after "Hi my name is". I couldn't tell if it was an attempt at a pickup or just the blunt northern style...
We all hung out for about an hour, watching the kids, talking about technology (really this guy was an odd-duck). I collected all the children and deposited them back to their homes in one piece. I was pretty proud of myself. I'm not typically the kid-collecting type mom but if this kids going to have any friends, it looks like I may have to be...
As for me, I still haven't really made any new friends. Mr. Manhattan was nice but he's a dude. I just have to keep getting out and trying I suppose...
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