Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for October 11, 2009

I run into this all the time with friends who have kids. It’s so irritating. The kid always comes first.

And why not? Flesh of their flesh vs a friend.

On second thought, buh, buh, buh, vs. intelligent conversation…

I run into it with my mother and MY kids!! She’ll sit there and talk to them like that, thinking she is able to also hold a conversation with me. Quite annoying.

I never had children either, but every time I looked in, the outside seemed like a much better deal.

That’s why I didn’t try to go to lunch with other moms until our kids were old enough to play in McDonald’s play area. At least once the kids had gobbled their food, we were left in relative peace until it was time to leave.

That so strange when my kids where young I had no mom to talk with. The kids would play I would sit and read. Now fast food has no play area and my kids are adults.

Val totally has my sympathy here. She really telegraphed her desire – “I thought you had a sitter” “I wanted to talk” – & Joan reassured her – “It’s her nap time” – & then ignored what she had just heard & said. It’s also obvious that Val appears to be the bad guy to the waitress. I doubt Joan is going to take the hit. Not Joan’s best moment.