As a SAHM one of the most difficult parts to adjust to was the lack of adult interaction. Before you have a child most woman work and spend their day talking with friends and coworkers. Suddenly you have a baby and no one to talk too! I mean your husbands, friends, family and coworkers are busy. It gets better I promise. Your baby gets bigger and you start to meet other moms. So this is where play dates come in! I will admit I love play dates! I know it’s important for children to interact with each other, but I’m just happy it gives me a chance to talk to another adult! My two-year-old daughter loves to talk, but that only goes so far. However, now she’s a toddler I have to constantly intervene to keep the kids from fighting over toys. Which means less time for an uninterrupted adult conversation.
Well, a fellow mom and myself found a solution to this problem. Schedule a play date during nap time! I know it sounds crazy and frankly how is this a play date. My fellow mommy and I came across this idea by accident. She needed to come over earlier for our playdate and it was around our girl’s nap time. So I set up a pack -n-play in our guest room for her to put her daughter down for a nap. I then put my daughter down for her own nap. All I can say is we had 90 minutes with both of our girls napping! It was an eye opening experience for us!
During their nap time we sat on my couch drank coffee and talked. What SAHM gets to spend 90 minutes talking with another parent these days! This was the best play date I had ever had! Our girls both woke up around the same time. But once they did their play date began. Both of us were recharged and ready for whatever behaviors and attitudes the girls threw at us. All because we had our own “play date” giving us the child free time we needed.
This experience made me feel like I found the Holy Grail of parenting! I had time to talk to my friend without my screaming toddler WOW! Before this experience play dates with a toddler were exhausting! You spend most of the time trying to keep them from grabbing the same toy, pushing and whatever else they can think of. All while trying to have an adult conversation, this never turns out well. From that day forward my fellow mom and I try to host at least one play date a week during our girl’s nap time. I mean parents need play dates too!
