DE-NIED!!

So there is a little girl in Kate's preschool named Neeka, and she and Kate have gotten to be such good little friends. Neeka's mom Renee is also really sweet, and she has a little boy almost Ezra's age. Throughout the last year, we have gotten to be friends, and before the summer we exchanged all of our info., with the intentions of getting together, but of course it didn't happen. But now this school year, every time we pick up or drop our girls off at the same time, I feel like Neeka's mom sort of lingers around to chat, and the convo inevitably ends with the "we should get the girl's together to play" conversation.

Well, on Tuesday we were once again lingering. So I asked Neeka's mom, "Hey, would Neeka ever want to come over and play at our house? We could take her home with us one day, and then drop her off after a couple of hours. Kate has been wanting a friend to come over and she would just love to have her come play." This was her response: "(pause) Ummm....I don't know....Neeka has never been away from me before! I don't know how she would feel about it! I've just never done that, so I just don't really know how I feel about that!"

Umm....what? Are you serious? It's a freakin' playdate, not a marriage proposal. So then I was left scrambling, mumbling something like, "Well, maybe one day. Ask Neeka what she thinks about it, process it for awhile, and maybe one day we can work something out."

But I felt so retarded. First of all, am I too trusting that I would let Kate go over to someone else's house? A child who had been in her preschool class for over a year now, and who's mom I have not only talked to dozens of times but also discussed getting our kids together countless times? Kate went to her friend Gabi's house last year who lives in Nellie Gail and it was NO BIG DEAL.

Secondly, i know being a member of the church gives you a lot more opportunities to "leave" your kids in nursery, primary, and the network of stay-at-home mom's with lots of young kids, but Neeka is 4 years old....she's seriously never had a playdate? Or was that just an excuse, and the real reason is that it is me asking, a "stranger", someone Neeka's mom just doesn't feel comfortable with.

Anyway, the whole exchange was just so awkward. And to be honest, this seems to be the case with all of the moms at Kate's school. Instead of just arranging a playdate, they want all of us to get together. And this is going to sound so snobby, but I already have a lot of friends...I'm not too interested in going to some park while our kids just ignore us, and we are left to make painful small talk for two hours. I mean, seriously!

But man, it sure was sweet feeling like a sixteen-year old boy getting rejected asking a girl out. One thing I do know, is that you can bet your you-know-what that i won't be suggesting any more playdates with Neeka OR her mom anytime soon!!!