The playdate test

I'd forgotten how awkward these things are.

My girls have several friends, some they see a lot, and some they are still getting to know. For the most part, their newer friendships are forming gradually between friend-to-friend and mother-to-mother at the same time. And, that's nice because I know that any playdates they have with these newer friends should be fairly easy for me too.

Not my son, though. He goes to preschool, and his friends' parents are those people to whom I just smile and say "hi" once or twice a day, three days a week.

And now he's requesting playdates. Oh, help me.

Right before the first one, I had a stomachache. Why haven't we ripped out the ugly pink carpeting upstairs by now? Why does my kitchen still have this wallpaper? My dining room! It's a school room with books and crafts and papers everywhere!

I felt like a girl about to go to prom with a huge zit on her nose.

Regardless, that first playdate went well: D and his new friend got along famously, and the mom and I spent an hour or two chatting.

But, when the conversation about kindergarten came up, I dropped the "H" word and I felt the air in the room change. The fact that we homeschool still came as a surprise despite the fact that my school-age girls are with me every time I drop off or pick up D from school,

Oh, and she's a teacher? Fabulous.

Listen, I know that teachers and homeschoolers can be friends, but there is that awkward pause of "ohhhhhhhhhh" every time this happens as we digest and size up each other.

Do I think this fact has been the reason there has been no reciprocal request for a playdate? Or was it just me? Or---no, it couldn't be---my son?

This morning I do it all over again with a new mom and her son. And, I know the homeschooling thing is going to come as a shock since her last email asked me if she'd see me at the kindergarten orientation held last night.

I wish I could have a glass of wine before a 10am playdate.