Being included

Yesterday a few moms from Tobey's class last year were setting up a playdate. I don't know all the social dynamics of our class last year but it seemed like we 4 families were some of the few pockets of socialness in our class. One of the moms is still in our class this year but the two others got separated out to a different class. When I arrived to pick up Tobey, Mom1 immediately comes over and invites us to the playdate. How nice, of course we'll come! Then while I was getting something out of the car, we pass Mom2 who says, did they tell you about the playdate? While talking to Mom2, Mom3 drives up, rolls down her window and says, is she telling you about the playdate?

Feels nice to be included.

And so one of the reasons I volunteered to be a co-room parent for Tobey's class this year was to help increase Tobey's social activity at school. Since I should get to know each of the parents, it would give me more excuses to set up playdates at the park or to say hi while we pickup/dropoff. And since last year our room parent didn't do so much of that kind of stuff, I kind of looked forward to getting parents to know each other a little more, now that it's our second year together. I also think communication in our school is haphazard (like none of us knew that parents could participate in Sports Day) so I wanted at least our class to know some of the important stuff.

Speaking of being included...or not...funny story from yesterday at Dr. Moore's office. After the appt, Tobey gets to choose stickers and lollipops so he was excited to pick a Spider-Man sticker. Then he found an Ariel sticker and said, "Here Mommy! You can have a princess!" And Eli was excited to find "Mamoo!" (Thomas). So Tom asked Tobey, "Which sticker can I have?" And without so much as looking up to give him some eye contact, Tobey mumbles, "Whatever you want."

Poor Daddy. Don't worry, we'll include you in all of our room parent social activities. :-)