I went to a committee meeting slash dinner last night (well, actually no meeting, all dinner. And drinks.) and sat at a table with mostly stay at home moms who were very curious to hear how it’s going with me. They’ve all heard through the school grapevine that I’ve joined their ranks (see blog Day 3 for an explanation of how the school grapevine works – https://newstayathomemom.com/?p=17) and they wanted to know how I like it.
Duh – Love it!
And then, looking to fit in and show how I was “one” with them, that we were “simpatico,” that they are my “peeps” (what’up, what’up home mom!) I regaled them with a story about how I had a mutual acquaintance over for homemade cake and cup of coffee that afternoon. To which they were all “wait, wait, wait. SHE brought cake?”
Me: “No, I made cake.”
Them: “Huh? You made cake? And served it with coffee to a friend at your house?!” And they’re all looking from one to the other and shrugging their shoulders. Next, I expected they would try to poke each other in the eyes while saying nyuck nyuck nyuck like some stay at home mom version of the three stooges.
Me: “Helloooo. I mean come on! Isn’t that what we do?! Isn’t this what you’ve all been doing since your first child went to school? Having each other over for cake and coffee and leaving the working moms out?” [I was a little more jokey sounding and less angry and desperate than it’s coming across here. I think.]
…….
Honestly, doesn’t anyone else remember their mother having women friends over for cake and coffee in the afternoon? It’s what they did, right? My mom did it so well that she even had little fancy containers (matching, white with bumps all over them like those old popcorn-y bedspreads) for the cream and sugar. But I thought I was modernizing the whole affair by not having any containers. My guest just helped herself to the sugar directly from the sugar jar and milk out of the carton.
[as a side note, coffee is WAY easier to make nowadays than I remember it was back then. It took like 20 hours and you had to assemble metal items and maybe even a spring or two then balance it all on some sort of stick within the coffee pot. Then the coffee had to bubble up through this little glass spout at the top. I believe that was called “percolating” but it seemed really confusing and time-consuming and you had to prepare it long before people even walked in the door]
And here we’ve come to the crux of the problem (no, not that coffee can now be made on-the-fly. Or that I don’t have fancy cream and sugar containers, ’cause I do. I just didn’t use them). Rather, maybe I’m operating under some 1970’s version of what I should be doing??
Good Lord! Where’s the pamphlet from the OB/GYN’s office when you need it?!? It’s hard to get this right!