Playdate

The phone rings a few hours before school pick up.

It's 97 degrees outside.

"Hi, this is mom-who-shall-remain-nameless (Mom), are you busy this afternoon for a playdate?"

Me:"We are free this afternoon and I am open to having a playdate, what did you have in mind?"

Mom: "I was thinking to go to the park with the water a few blocks away."

Me: "That sounds fun but I am very concerned about the heat index today. I am in the middle of auditions right now and I am not sure how my little one will hold up....could we just play it by ear when we pick up the kids in a few hours, decide then?"

Mom:" The thing is that I will need you to take my daughter to the park and then I would meet you about 40 minutes later..."

Me: "Are you going to have some sort of back-up plan for your daughter during that time frame, because, like I said before, I am very concerned about the heat."

Mom: "Well, it's a water park so I will bring a swimsuit and towel for my daughter and they can cool off with the water."

Me: "I don't have a swimsuit and towel ready for my kids. I am out."

Mom: "Where are you?"

(It's none of your business....)

Me: "I am at 23rd and 5th ave." (Really I was just about 3 minutes away from my apartment, but I had already left the house, it was swelltering heat and I wasn't going back to lug towels and bathing suits on top of my flight attendant outfit that I needed for an audition, just so that I could babysit her daughter for some 40-minute errand she had). "I won't be able to get swimsuits and towels etc."

Mom: "The girls are going to get soaking wet, they need bathing suits...maybe we have a playdate another time."

Me:"Ok, maybe when the weather is a bit nicer."

Even though I was a little irritated in the moment, I let it go, and when I saw her at pick-up I observed that she had wrangled another girl's nanny into the job of watching her daughter for that 40 minutes...and that she had towels and suits.

My girls whined at a level code red the entire way home and once there, sat on the couch next to the air conditioner for the next 2+ hours watching Disney Channel. That heat was brutal and I am so glad I did not go to the water park.