New Age Parents
It was a rare treat for me. Making a drive into the city to go shopping with a friend. Browsing through shops, drooling in the book stores, and of course going to the pet store to buy toys and treats for my Maltese. We were getting a bit tired so decided to stop for tea at a trendy little outside cafe.
It was very crowed. We settled in for a bit of a wait. The conversation swirling around us was hard to ignore. Women and men talking about their children. One woman reached into a bag and pulled out a frilly dress. “My little girl is going to look like a little doll in this,’ she said. “I’m having trouble getting my four month old to warm up to new people, she’s so shy.” It was hard not to listen in as the tables were so close together.
One lady was telling her friend that her daughter refused to eat what she cooked, or she didn’t like the new toy her daddy brought home. Her companions at the table nodded their heads in sympathy. They understood. A man commented that he was angry because there was a bully at the playground, plus his wife was going to have a fit as he had lost his boy’s jacket she had hand sewn.
It went on and on. How hard it was to find the right shoes, or having to put their children’s names down months in advance to get them into the proper school. My friend and I were finally served. While sipping tea I heard, “I took all seven of my babies to the doctor.” I gasped. Seven babies? I looked at her. The woman was pencil thin, how on earth did she have seven babies and look like that! Curiosity got the better of me, I asked her how she managed with seven tiny ones to care for. She waved a languid hand in the air, “Oh they are fine, just turned 14 months old. They do keep me hopping.”
My friend and I just stared at her. Motherhood for us had never been that easy. We watched while the entire group got up to leave. They all seemed to be headed int the same direction. I asked the waitress if there was a day care nearby. She wiped down a table and smiled, “Yes there is, and one of these days I’m going to take a few of those cuties home with me.” She stopped to pick up a tray of dirty dishes, “but then my husband would have a fit.” This was getting a bit too weird.
Paying the bill, we left, following the crowd of parents. When we saw where they were going, we looked at each other in shock, then doubled over laughing. It was not what we expected from listening to the small talk at the cafe.
They were parents, they all doted on their babies. Those babies came in different colors, sizes, and each one had a tail! When they saw their “parents” coming to pick them up they wriggled with delight.
The waitress was right. It was a day-care. But you had to be a puppy to get in!
