We are headed to Water World today! This is a pretty big deal and here’s why:
We have never been to Water World and the blame lies entirely on me. I don’t love large crowds, screaming children (my own included), heat, pools, preeetttty much everything about a water park sounds terrible. The idea of running around in a swimsuit in front of strangers (or anyone) just amplified my desire to skip this place altogether.
But, I’ve recently been feeling pretty left out in life; friends not inviting me to things with them, friends not inviting my kids to parties or play dates. After a pretty big meltdown last week at the realization we’d been left out once again, the universe put something in front of me that made me jump at a new opportunity: New Mom Friends.
I met two moms at swim lessons for my boys a few weeks ago. They have kids the same age, they are super funny and personable, and they invited us to Water World this weekend because they genuinely wanted to spend more than 30 minutes at a time with us. For whatever I’d done wrong to get uninvited by others, I was being given the chance to make new friends….ones who WANT to include us. So as out-of-character as today may be for me, we are lathered up in SPF and driving to the water park!
I guess my point of this long rant is that navigating adult friendships can be hard, especially when you have kids. It’s difficult to find people who share your parenting values, understand when you want to be social vs. when you’re tapped out, and still want to include you as lives go in different directions. I’m not the perfect friend, and I’ve struggled to be a working mom as it limits my availability. I know this. I also know that I’ve limited myself by turning down invitations in the past. Sometimes it takes getting out of your own way to allow for new things.
So, we’re off! Here’s to a day of making memories with my children in giant bodies of water filled with other people’s urine.
