Playdump.

When you're a parent, you learn about being flexible, because kids have their own agendas that often conflict with yours. When you try to coordinate with other parents, this gets compounded. For example, for the second time, I tried to organize a lunchtime playdate with four former coworkers (I know, "former coworker" just adds to the flaky mix) who all have children under two. They all live in NoVA like us, so it seemed to be a great idea! Nobody was available for the first date I tried to organize, so I thought I'd give it another shot. We all agreed on a date two weeks out, Saturday March 24; I had a book group meeting scheduled, but I thought that I could be flexible about their schedules if they were all available that day and so I bowed out of the book group. To make a long story short, nobody showed up. Again. AND, we didn't make it to the book group because AJS already drove out to PG County that morning to see his mother and didn't want to make another trip. Aside from that, we had all sorts of partially prepared extra food in the house (to accomodate our assumed guests: 8 adults and 4 kids) and didn't want it to go to waste.

Just to assuage your curiousity, here are the excuses: family one had to go out of town unexpectedly; family two had a sick kid, coughing and tugging her ear, so a doc appt interfered; family three, um, wife had to work (? lame.); family four, well, just forgot, haven't been checking emails, haven't been checking phone messages. And, we didn't even get a day's notice from them. AJS started shopping and cooking for the lunch the day before.

AARRGH. I think I'll let somebody else organize next time.