Playmates

Chloe had a friend over to play today. He lives quite close to us and they are in the same class. She says he is her best friend. I have met the parents and child before as he came to her birthday party. I always seem a little off about the whole playdate thing. The name, to start with, gets me. It seems like a crazy world we have come to when people feel the need to schedule "play dates" for their kids. I guess I just don't have the time to be bothered or to worry about it. Never the less she is getting older, and she asked last night if he could come play today. I told her we would call and ask.

He is a very sweet little boy. He showed up today sporting a book on the human brain that he checked out from the city library. It was a very hefty book and quite adult. He mentioned that he chose it because he thought it looked really interesting. And it did, for a neurosurgeon- but maybe that is just me.

They make quite a scientific friendship. He was more than excited to help Chloe gather more worms for our box of pets. (They are doing quite well thank you for asking. I like to think of them as portable composting).

A few hours later when his mom came by to pick him up, we chatted for a bit. She is a very in- the- know- parent in terms of the school PTO goings ons. I am a very not- in- the- know parent. It isn't that I don't care really; it is more that I don't have the time to really be bothered with it all. It is interesting how people who know all the gossip in a community just seem to assume that the rest of us do too. I can remember that earlier this year the girls and I had been away for a vacation. I came home to a message from this child's dad asking for the child to come over to play. He mentioned that his wife wanted to nap. At the time I thought it was such an odd request. You want me to watch your child so you can nap? I didn't get it. But we had been gone any way so it was kind of a moot point. Today I learned that this woman has been fighting a extremely aggressive form of breast cancer. Diagnosed on basically the first day of school. Suddenly the entire thing made sense. I never said anything, but I know that they assumed I knew she had cancer. I had no idea. I told her that over the summer he could come play quite a bit if he would like. Chloe was really excited about this idea.

Later she mentioned that some of the kids at school think it is weird that she is best friends with him since he is a boy. She asked me what I thought. So I asked , "Well, what do you like about him?"

She said, "He is really nice to me, and he makes me laugh." I told her that I couldn't think of better reasons to want to spend time with someone. Quite frankly, I think that is what most of us want in the people around us.