Can you believe this?

I know a mom who is an attractive actress turned massage therapist. She has told me all about her roles in commercials as well as being an extra in several TV shows. She has played a homeless woman and a doctor. She has a good sense of humor, but sometimes talks about things that I find confusing. She told me she believes in method acting and tries to live a part before having to play it. I didn’t know extras did this so I was interested in hearing more. I asked her if she became homeless for a while to prepare for her homeless woman role and she said she camped in her backyard for a night in a cardboard box. I found this fascinating.

I saw her at the fish market and she asked me over for a play date. She thought it would be fun for the kids to put on a production together, that she’s trying to get her kids into theater and had a “great idea for a play date.” She has a toddler who is in preschool part time just like my 3 year old, so after we dropped our oldest kids off; I went to her house so our little ones could play together.

That’s when things got interesting.

She had asked me to bring a few scarves. I don’t have silk scarves so I brought over a fleece one. She told me that wasn’t what she wanted, but she had a few so it wouldn’t be a problem. We went down into the basement playroom and the kids wanted to play with the pretend kitchen, but she wasn’t having it. She told the kids to stand together and pretend they were birds flying through the sky. They did, but then wanted to go back to the pretend kitchen. The mom was becoming frustrated. She said it was so important for children to learn through pretend play. She told me she also had a degree in play therapy. I told her the kids were pretending, in the play kitchen. She said she had an idea of what our play date would be. She started to become frustrated and took two Hermes silk scarves and started pretending they were her wings. The kids laughed, but they didn’t want any part of what was going on. She looked defeated and asked me to go upstairs with her for a coffee. That’s when she told me she was disappointed. I tried to change the subject to massage, but she snapped at me. I asked her what was going on and she asked if I’d be ok with her babysitter watching the kids for an hour so we could go to the diner. The babysitter was due to arrive in 30 minutes. I turned her down and left before the babysitter arrived.

I have no idea what happened, why it was so important for our children to become birds or why she didn’t want to talk about her massage job. I left feeling confused and exhausted. She texted me a few minutes ago saying we should try again next week. I haven’t gotten back to her yet.

Posted by BadPlaydate in Family, Fatherhood, Gossip, humor, Motherhood, parenting Tags: actiing, advice, bad playdate, children in theater, drama, extra in a TV show, family, fatherhood, gossip, Hermes silk scarf, humor, judgemental, kids, mom, mom is a former actress, motherhood, nannies, NYC, parenting, playdate, playdate ideas, preschools, SAHM, stay at home dads, suburbs, theater, toddlers, working mom