Odd Woman Out

On Sunday afternoon I had the pleasure of attending a birthday tea for one of McKenna's friends. McKenna was ecstatic and I was admittedly excited to get out of the house for the afternoon and be around some other moms. Granted, I didn't know any of them but I figured, "What the heck."

The initial introductions flew by and soon the little girls were seated in one room having their tea while the moms gathered in the kitchen around their own plate of goodies. I was the odd (wo)man out almost immediately as the other women poured cups of coffee while I opted for tea. I mean, it was a TEA party after all, right? Anyway, things continued to go downhill from there. I found myself seated around the kitchen table with a poetry professor, a woman who spent her "pre-baby" days on Broadway and an Indonesian music professor. Oh.My.God. Before I knew it I was immersed in conversations about college days at Princeton and Columbia, performances at lavish homes in the Hamptons, years spent living in Barbados, FedEx deliveries of foreign foods I've never heard of. All I could think was that McKenna was going to have to make new friends because there was no way I could keep up with this. Let's face it, if you can't find the ingredients for pot pie at Weis then it ain't worth making! At one point it did cross my mind that I could handle this crowd. I mean, I work with doctors every day! But somehow I think that when people come together in the name of saving a child nothing else really matters.

I sat quietly for awhile sipping my tea and nibbling my biscotti wondering what I could possibly offer to the conversation. And then suddenly something happened. The "pre-baby" talk was over and the parenting topics were suddenly on the table. All at once I felt the mood (at least my mood) shift and before I knew it we were all laughing. Laughing at the fact that no matter how many cute outfits are hanging in the closet our kids always want to wear the same thing - you know, the one with the big stain on it; commiserating over challenges with new teachers; exploring the popular choices for Halloween costumes and the fact that our parents never let us buy costumes when we were young; tricking our kids into taking a nap via the famous "snooze cruise". You get the picture.

And so, as it turns out, it doesn't really matter who we were in a previous life. Or whether you drink tea or coffee. When it comes right down to it, we all face the same challenges and go through much of the same "stuff" with our kids. Whether we go to work everyday and read poetry or play the piano or in my case, deal with blood and guts - we are not at all different. We are mom's. And that's one club I'm proud to be part of.