the joy of a crazy playdate

i openly admit that i cringe at the idea of playdates.  so often it seems that a playdate becomes a platform for competition and judging other mothers and their parenting skills.  for over 2.5 years i have avoided most playdate opportunities like the plague because of this bizarre behaviour.

today, thanks to a wonderful lady named Dani, over at www.mom2mom.ca/toronto india, kalden and i went to the biggest playdate ever and it was nothing at all like my previous experiences.

at one point i counted 24 kids in Dani's backyard but i know there were even more kids in the house.  it was pure madness and i loved every minute of it.

everywhere i looked, someone was holding someone else's baby, wiping mud off someone else's toddler and getting food for someone else's child.  it was beautiful to watch strangers become friends with nothing more in common than the fact that they were parents.

today was the perfect example of how things "should" be.  laughter, smiles and co-operation in parenting.  bonding over tortilla chips or the smell of a new baby is a much better way to live life than spending time worrying about who is potty trained and who is counting to 10. 

i even got to chat with a fellow doula, although it was a little hard to have a continuous conversation when there was so much action around us.

i REALLY look forward to meeting up with more of those ladies and having the chance to get to know them better on an individual basis.  i am also really thankful for online communities like mom2mom that translate into wonderful "in real life" experiences.