Parenthood just gets better and better

This week was ridiculously busy. We had a visit from Sadie and Jack's Grandpop and Paula. John and Jack really took to each other. It was very sweet.

I had an insanely busy week at work. I'm definitely ready for a break from work. And to top off the all the activity of the week Elenora, who takes care of the babies while I'm work, announced on Monday that there would be a Christmas party at the daycare on Wednesday. Elenora's not much for giving advance notice.

Elenora made the Christmas party sound very causal and because I was slammed with six meetings on Wednesday at work I figured that I'd drop by the party when I picked up the babies, stay for a half hour, and then rush home so John and Paula could get some time with the babies before their bedtime at 7:00. I rushed into the Christmas party at 5:30 and immediately felt uncomfortable. Elenora asked if I'd brought Christmas outfits for the babies. Um, no. One of the dads asked about my work and then proceeded to tell me that he'd been out of work for 7 months and asked if we were hiring. Unfortunately in this economy we're getting about a 100 applications for every underpaid job we've got. Elenora then insisted on watching all of the children and ushered all the parents into her dinning room where there was a full dinner set up. Meanwhile I knew that John was back at our house preparing dinner and wondering where I was with the babies. I ate what I could and then excused myself to go back to the babies. Elenora was feeding Jack a bottle because he was starting to melt down because it was getting to be bedtime. I took over the bottle in hopes that I could feed him quickly and get home. Once he finished his bottle I tried to say good bye, but was told that I needed to wait because another parent had gone back to their house to get a camera so that they could get a picture of all the children together. By this point I was sweating.

I finally said that I really had to go and explained how bad I felt, but that we had grandparents waiting for my two babies who were now both melting down. All the parents said they understood, but then started bringing out presents. Presents! Every other family had bought a Christmas present for Jack and Sadie. Elenora had bought multiple outfits for each of the babies! This is Elenora, the woman who ruminates endlessly about how hard it is to make ends meat every morning as I'm trying to quickly drop of my children so that I'm not late to work. I was mortified. I had no idea that I was supposed to get presents. I found myself apologizing profusely and feeling nauseous as I was showered with gifts. Even the family with the unemployed dad had a gift for us.

I did manage to finally get out of the Christmas party, but it was by far the most uncomfortable experience that I've had as a parent yet. I guess that I should anticipate that this is only the beginning. We inevitably have another couple decades of bake sales, fundraisers, birthday parties, PTA meetings, and million other opportunities to not measure up. The only silver lining to this one is that Jack and Sadie won't remember it.