Moms, just stop.

Louisa and I went to the park on Friday. It was a beautiful day although a little chilly for my taste. However, nothing a hoodie and scarf couldn't cure. I was gearing up for a weekend as a single parent (Steve was heading down to New Orleans with some old friends) so I needed to let the little one burn as much energy as possible. We don't go to the park a lot and usually we are not there when lots of other moms and kids are there, (which is kind of how I prefer it... What? Did I say that?) but by the looks of it lots of moms were feeling the need to get out of the house that day.

I am not good at making mommy friends with strangers so I just kind of sat back and watched Lou play while listening to all the conversations around me (Obviously eaves dropping is wrong and I never do it...except all the time. Whatever. Judge if you want. There is some funny stuff to be heard if you like that sort of thing.)

One thing I realized is that all of the funny "what type of mom are you?" and "mommy wars" spoofs I watch on facebook are not far off. I thought those things were exaggerated or just people who live in LA or NYC or places where parental (and just human) competition is heightened. But this sillyness is even happening right here in Germantown.

The first thing I saw was a little boy playing with a small stick and then he simply pointed it at another child. She laughed and played along. Suddenly, his mother swooped in screaming ( in a high pitched sing song voice so as to still be positive and encouraging) "No no, Zander! We do not play with sticks that are shaped like guns. We do not believe in pointing guns at people in our family. Guns are very very harmful!" 

Whew. Crisis averted.

And then I hear 2 other moms discussing how they usually go to a different park because the play ground equipment is better for stimulating motor skills or something to that effect. But that today they mixed it up to introduce variety in their little's play experience.

And yet another mother was encouraging her daughter count each monkey bar before the grabbed it, making sure the play time was also educational.

Yall.

That was too much for a Friday. My head was spinning. I thought we were just there to slide and swing. Silly me. Call me crazy, but I think we can all just calm down. Our kids are fine and having fun. Just make sure there is no blood shed and we should be fine.

Meanwhile, this chick had no idea that there was anything else going on in the entire world. She was trying to touch the tops of the trees... And she almost did it. Pure joy.