Welcome back to O.P.P

It’s time for another installment of O.P.P “Other people’s playdates” where readers write in and share their bad playdate stories.

Have a story to share? You will be anonymous, I promise.

You down wit O.P.P? Email me! badplaydate@gmail.com

Dear Bad Playdate,

Thank you for allowing us moms out there in the playdate trenches to unburden ourselves.

When you invited us to share bad playdate stories, one sprang immediately to mind. I’m still puzzling over this incident even though it happened three years ago.

It happened while I was on maternity leave with my then-2-month-old. He and I were in a coffee shop one day when we met another mom and her baby, about the same age as my son. We exchanged numbers, and soon after I had lunch with her and another mom friend of hers who also had a baby. Both moms seemed nice, and the lunch was fun, so when they
invited me to “coffee and a walk with the babies” one morning, I happily accepted.

We stopped off to get our coffee and then headed down to the waterfront with our strollers (I live near a waterfront area). At that time, the walking path down there wasn’t paved, so we were strolling on gravel.

Here I should point out that there was some disparity between my stroller and these other moms’. They both had those strollers with giant wheels that can take on rough terrain; I didn’t (although now I see why those are nice to have!) so my stroller wasn’t handling the gravel so well. Anyway, they fell into place walking side by side, and there wasn’t enough space for us to walk all three abreast, so I walked with my stroller behind them. They started walking faster, and I picked up the pace too. Then they started walking faster. And faster and faster. I’ll admit I’ve never been much of a speed walker, but my stroller did not like this terrain at all, and soon they were getting so far ahead of me I was running–I mean really RUNNING–to catch up with these people.

And big wheels are not the only thing my stroller didn’t have. It also didn’t have a cup holder. (At the time, I was not really with it when it came to baby gear, being the first of my friends and siblings to have a kid.) So I was holding my coffee in one hand and pushing my stroller with the other, and as I ran to catch up with my bad dates, the coffee started sloshing all over me. My clothes were soaked. I had Stumptown Roast in my hair, and although my baby escaped the coffee shower since he was in his car seat at the front of the stroller, the back of the stroller and a blanket I had hanging there were drenched.

By the time I caught up with the two other moms, I was sticky, dripping and embarrassed, and they were done with their walk. And maybe this was my imagination, but they seemed annoyed with me. They curtly said goodbye, and went on their way. I never heard from them again.

So I ask you, Bad Playdate: Did I do something wrong? Is “a walk with coffee” code for “we walk as fast as possible and woe unto those who can’t keep up”?

Either way, thanks for listening.
-Anonymous

Any advice for our friend? Bad Playdate says you’re better off without these ladies, Anonymous! Hope things have gotten better!

Posted by BadPlaydate in Family, Fatherhood, Gossip, humor, Motherhood, parenting Tags: advice, babies, bad playdate, bugaboo, coffee, exercise, family, fatherhood, gossip, help with kids, humor, judgemental, kids, maternity leave, mom, mom group, motherhood, nannies, Neurotic, NYC, O.P.P, parenting, playdate, reporting, SAHM, share stories, speed walking, stay at home mom, strollers, Stumptown, toddlers, waterfront walking with baby, working mom