Toddler Playdate

The last of the toddlers had just left Oliver's playdate when his Uncle Andy arrived early yesterday evening to babysit. He found a house in disarray. Furniture had been shoved aside, every toy Oliver possesses and every piece of those toys was strewn across the carpet, snack crumbs were everywhere and Oliver had just dumped the remainder of the Cheerios box on the floor by the door. The cereal crunched underfoot as I stumbled towards the door to let Andy in. Oliver had entertained six baby friends and it showed. If Andy looked shocked at the sight of my house, I was equally as shocked. Naively, I had never imagined parenthood would be this messy.

The word "playdate" conjures the notion that kids play on these dates, but for toddlers, an afternoon playdate more resembles feeding time at the zoo. Since Oliver had woken up from a nap shortly before the playdate started, he needed a snack, so out came the Cheerios. Another mom had brought homemade graham crackers. The snacks were barely out of their perspective packaging when the kids started clamoring for them. They swarmed whichever parent held food and plucked from the floor any fallen pieces of grub. I felt like I was feeding pigeons. They shoved fistfuls in their mouths and still reached for more even with their mouths stuffed. When the box of Cheerios looked dangerously low and a tantrum nearly erupted over a container of puffs, I found another unopened container stashed in the back of my cupboard and the noshing continued. I spent much of the afternoon with my hand outstretched for kids to graze from. I joked that I should have saved myself the trouble and bought one of those pet food dispensers and tought the kids how to serve themselves.

Despite the fact that the kids seemed to spend much of the playdate stuffing their mouths, they did do some playing in between. In true toddler style, they dumped the toy bucket, climbed on the couch, scooted my dining room chairs across the hardwood floors, crawled and stumbled over each other, moved in packs and occasionally looked like they were actually playing with each other. My living room took a beating, but they had fun and us moms appreciated the company of other adults.

By the time the playdate ended and I got Oliver's dinner ready, I was already running late, so I left the house as is. I was relieved and grateful when I came home to see that Andy had hunted down the stray pieces to Oliver's toys, put everything back in its place, stacked the board books on the coffee table and washed Oliver's booster seat and sippy cups. A mom's wish come true!