Once an Iowan, Always an Iowan

So, for a while I’ve been really excited about taking Thomas to Baby Storytime at our local library branch. Apparently it’s very popular, so you have to register in advance for a session of four weekly meetings. So on the first day that you could call to register, about five minutes after the library opened, I called.

After all, this is the kind of thing you’re supposed to do when you’re a mom, right? You’re supposed to read to your baby. Take your baby to the library. Meet other moms. Let your kid meet and play with other babies. Right?

So today was the first meeting. They had sent all of these reminders making it clear that space was limited, so if you’re not going to show up, let them know so some other lucky baby can attend. Thus even though it’s fricking freezing here today (though actually nearly 15 degrees warmer than it was two days ago, which is not saying much), I bundled Thomas up, loaded him into the car, and took him to the library.

And then found out that Baby Storytime was cancelled because they’re having problems with the heater in the room where it was supposed to be held.

Grr.

There were all these other moms and babies there, so they told us we could sit in the main part of the library where they have all the kids’ stuff (it’s a branch library, so it’s pretty small) and read to the babies ourselves and/or “chat.” So we did. Sort of.

You see, there seemed to be two kinds of moms there:
1. Impeccably-dressed, bleached-blonde, nasty competitive moms with perfect makeup, and
2. Nice, normal, but painfully and awkwardly quiet moms dressed in normal clothes for sub-zero weather.

(Just in case you’re wondering, I was part of group #2.)

Most of us (the group 2ers) just sort of sat there reading to our babies and attempting to help them sort of maybe play with other babies. We (at least I and one other woman) occasionally attempted to start up some kind of conversation, but this usually took place through the babies rather than directly (“Thomas, what do you think? Look at what Izzy has. Isn’t that fun? Say ‘Hi Izzy!’ Ask Izzy how old she is.”). It was weird.

Meanwhile, the two Nasty Competitive Moms (NCMs) were blabbing away. One excerpt of their conversation went like this:

NCM 1: “Where did they send their daughter?”
NCM 2: “To a preschool at the corner of Midvale and Tokay. It’s at Midvale Lutheran Church. I don’t think it’s religious at all though.”
NCM 1: “Yeah, I had wanted to send Brianna to the Monroe Street Fine Arts Center, but it’s so small and some of those spots have to go to disabled kids because they’re an inclusive school, so we won’t be able to get her in.”
NCM 2: “How old is Brianna?”
NCM 1: “Fifteen months. So she’ll be three in December of ‘08. We’ve already got her on several waiting lists. And the thing is that she’ll be almost six when she goes to kindergarten, which…”
NCM 2: “Oh, that will be a big advantage for you.”
NCM 1: “Really?”
NCM 2: “Oh definitely.”

Ugh. There are so many things in this conversation that make me just want to gauge my eyes out or something. Is this what we’re supposed to talk about at Baby Storytime?

Their conversation went on an on an on for probably twenty minutes, talking about all kinds of things they’re doing for their kids (“Yeah, just last week I bought 30 board books on Ebay for $20. It was a great way to get a bunch of new books.”). Meanwhile, they were completely ignoring their kids, only occasionally pausing their high-powered mom conversation to say “Yes, I can see, it’s a dog. What does a dog say? Good! How about a cat? What does a cat say?”

As this conversation died down, one of the NCMs followed her kid over to where we were playing with our babies. She started talking to some mom/kid combo and asked the kid’s name. “Mina.” “Nina?” “No, Mina with an ‘m’.” “Oh, Mina, that’s beautiful. How do you spell that?” “M I N A.” “Oh, that’s beautiful. This is Brianna.” Then she asked the other two moms who were sitting right there their babies’ names. It was kind of interesting, because when I had asked the woman next to me her daughter’s name, she had told me it was “Izzy.” But after the whole “Mina” thing, she told the NCM that her daughter was named “Israel” pronounced “Is-RYE-ell.” I guess it had the desired effect because the NCM once again exclaimed that this was a beautiful name.

Then, despite the fact that Thomas and I were sitting no more than nine inches away from her, and despite the fact that she had asked the names of all three other babies sitting with us, she totally ignored me and went back to talking to Mina’s mom. Guess I wasn’t cool enough for her.

So, that was that. After about 30 minutes of this, Non-Storytime was officially over and Thomas and I went home so he could have a nap. I guess I’ll go back for the three remaining meetings. It might be better if someone is actually running some kind of program.

At any rate, Thomas seemed to have an okay time, despite the fact that he was way younger than most of the kids there (it’s supposed to be for kids aged 0-15 months, but Izzy was the only other kid there who appeared to be under a year. Most of the others could walk, or at least were accomplished crawlers). There were some cool trucks and new books to look at, and he always likes to watch other kids, so he was happy.

But I guess I’ll look elsewhere for opportunities for mom/baby interactions. Sigh.