There are times, when I go days without seeing any other adults other than maybe the few minutes I spend at the bus stop with some of the other neighborhood dads in the mornings. On Monday evenings I attend my son’s Cub Scout meetings and then Sunday, as a family we go to church. In between those days, it’s a crap shoot. It’s almost enough, after a while to make me go a bit stir crazy. My normal interaction with other adults is sadly, social media. I feel like a rat in a cage most days, and the options are very limited.
Right off the bat play dates are out. Not many stay at home moms want to have a play date when the parents of the kids their kids are playing with is a SAHD. And of the few of those that would be okay with it, I guarantee their husband’s wouldn’t be okay with it. I’ve even had an issue when a friend of mine got upset because I suggested his wife and I get together for play dates during the summer because she’s home all day with her kids, and she lives within walking distance.
Hanging out with friends after work is generally a no go. Most of my friends, well all of them, have kids of their own and after work, they want to spend time with their wife and kids. On weekends, it’s hard to hang with my friends because, like me, the weekends are the only time the whole family is together and they want to spend time with them. It can be frustrating.
So I’m out of options and ideas. All I want is to be able to have an adult conversation with another adult, rather than conversations about cartoons, toys, how random messes came about in the house, princesses, tea parties, and other random thoughts that pop up inside the mind of a 3 year old. Is that really too much to ask?
I guess I could always make a new friend, but I’m not that crazy just yet.
See this is something that the spouses of the stay at home parent don’t understand. Even though they slave to the grind all day, they get to interact with other adults. They get their coffee breaks through the day and they get a lunch break. I would kill to have a lunch break, where I could sit by myself and decompress. They get the commute home, something they take for granted, to decompress and listen to their books on tape, talk radio or their favorite radio station. So the next time they come and complain about their day be sure to remind them of this. They should consider themselves lucky to have all of the free time that they take for granted, that I would do anything to get.
So I’ll keep plugging away day by day, trying to keep my sanity in a world of princess pink and tea parties.
Wish me luck, I’m gonna need it.
