Discovering and Accepting Your Weak Spots

Met a friend at church today and she made a comment that set off an "Aha!" moment in my brain.

"I'm not a playgroup mom. I tried it for a while but found I COULDN"T STAND THE NOISE!"

I thought her remark funny at the time, because she's a mom of three...boys.

But her remark also helped make sense of the conflict going on in my headspace.

For the past 7 months, I've been helping out at Monday playgroup with two other ladies.

We set up the play room, serve tea, coffee and bikkies at 10.30, chat with the moms, organize hands-on activity for the tots, wash the coffee cups and put away the toys.

It's not hard work.

Yet I have to admit, at times it's been a struggle. While it's nice to be doing something useful that meets a real need, I find I'm actually glad when the school hols come around and there's no playgroup.I've been trying to figure out what's behind the sense of low satisfaction.I've narrowed it down to two possibilities.

One, I'm not a natural kids person.Some people are just kid magnets. They know exactly what to say to a child to make her eyes light up or to send her into fits of giggling.

What I've managed to achieve so far - in terms of saying the right sorts of things to littlies so they don't run crying back to Mom - has been a gift from my own parenting experience.

If not for my own two challenging me and forcing me to improvise everyday, I wouldn't have the confidence to approach someone's child or to have him come over on a play date.Conversations with kids are one of the riskier things in life, something you can't properly control.

Have you ever tried to strike up a conversation with a 4 y.o., they answered yes/no, and the conversation just died?

The second reason I think I struggle with Mondays is because I'm not naturally social.

I may manage to make decent conversation on a one-on-one basis, but I tend to shrink into the background and come across as aloof if I encounter a group.

I've discovered that I have a pretty strong need for a sense of belonging, to feel that I'm making a difference, otherwise I get discouraged and feel like my presence is redundant.

When you're in playgroup, you can't just do the wallflower thing and chase your kid all the time. Part of the reason you're there is to mingle.

Things are getting better now that I've got to know a few of the moms better and we're on a come-over-for-coffee basis.

But I can tell you, I felt like a real outsider at the start. Almost an intruder, as most of the moms seemed to have known each other for a long time and their kids played together well.

So maybe what the past 7 months has been about is a process of self-discovery and acceptance.
You have to give something a go to know if it fits you or not.And finding out that something's not for you is never a loss or failure or a waste of time, because you do learn valuable stuff about yourself.

Such as "I'm not a playgroup mum". ;-)