Today I went to rehearsal for this show My Kid and I are in, without my kid, because she had a classmate’s birthday all-girl-dance-party to attend. She will miss another rehearsal because she has a soccer game scheduled. (It’s OK because this is experimental theatre and the experiment is what will the kids do when they are there with us in the process. It would not be OK if she had been cast in a role, that would then be the number one commitment, ahead of soccer and Brownies and even homework.)
Yesterday I was going to go to rehearsal without My Kid because she had a soccer game. But, it rained so she came after all. It was a long day. We got up early to go to a Girl Scout leaf raking community service activity at Concert Grove Prospect Park (You know that episode of the Simpson’s where Lisa begs Marge to take her to save the animals after an oil spill and they are assigned to clean rocks and Marge says “I have rocks that need scrubbing at home!” It was like that. Immediately following was a soccer game. I was to hand her off at the Parade Grounds where Brooklyn AYSO soccer is played. I was to hand her off to the husband and go into Soho on my own. Instead we ate at McDonald’s (the mothers of babies and toddlers in the theatre project are still in complete control of their children’s nutrition) to get out of the rain and hooked up with The Husband who arrived with the soccer gear. My Kid and I took the train to the studio in Soho. After rehearsal we stopped at a book store in the West Village to find a birthday gift for one of My Kid’s friends and came home in time to meet the babysitter. The Husband and I had an anniversary date planned and it was lovely. But it was a long day.
I am at a different place on my parenting road than the mothers of babies and toddlers who always have their children with them. They are at the stage where they have to get someone to cover for them and watch their child for 2 minutes while they go to the bathroom. I used to do that, now I carefully track and facilitate the calendar of Lego Robotics and Girl Scout meetings and AYSO soccer games and homework as the mother of an 3rd grader.