I'll take it to go, please

This morning I met some friends at the cute new kid-friendly cafe, Sip and Kranz. I had visions of sitting, drinking coffee, and catching up as our toddlers happily played together in the play area. I chose this spot for the the play area, having heard great things about it. And granted, it is the nicest I've seen--beanbags, pillows, new toys, and lots of kid-size things that toddlers love; and the play area is separated by a glass partition, so you can always see what is going on. My only complaint would be that they swap the flat-screen TV for a music system. Regardless, when we got a table adjacent to the glass, I thought that everything was falling into place for an enjoyable morning. Not quite...

For the last 16 1/2 months I have been Franny's shadow--when she plays, I play, when she eats, I eat--basically, everything she does, I do with her--and I love it. But the last thing I want to do is hover over her and make her dependent on me every moment of play time. So, I have tried to give her some time to play on her own, with me looking on and just making sure she's safe, rather than as her shadow. Mostly, I've done this during play groups with other kiddos and at the play structure at the mall. And she seems to love it--it really doesn't appear that she misses me. But today's setting just didn't fit into my comfort zone. Maybe because she's really not at the age where she can play unsupervised, so I really can't take my eyes off her anyway, or maybe because it feels like I'm putting her interests second to mine during her best time of day--sticking her in a glass box so I can sit and drink coffee with my friends. I had a hundred questions for my friends, and a hundred things to say, yet we barely conversed. I would have felt much more comfortable in a park or even my back deck or living room. Maybe it was the glass wall that bothered me--I don't know, but something just didn't feel right. Ironically, though, I think Franny had a great time.

Maybe I'll revisit this one in the future. But, for now, I think I'll stick to our adventures and invite our friends to join us. We'll have plenty of time to have conversations in a few years! Until then, I'll opt for the to-go cup!