Things That Annoy Me

I will readily admit, I am horrible at socializing. I just...suck at it. Unless I already know you. Maybe I'm shy, reserved, or just a plain old-fashioned bitch. Depending on how you look at it.

Today, the girls had their first day of ballet/gymnastics. I didn't want to put them in the same class, thinking that they would be distracted by each other. So, while T was in gymnastics, G was in ballet. Then they switched.

During the first session, I sat in the lobby of the park district. I read Family Circle and watched "The View" until I couldn't stand it anymore. For the second session, I decided to sit in the hallway with all of the other mommies.

One of them had a brand-new baby with her. Another was two weeks from delivering. Another mother wandered over and sat down next to the pregnant woman. I noticed her eyeballing the woman's belly. She then asked the woman when she was due. The woman told her she was due in two weeks.

"Do you know what you're having?" the woman asked.

"No," replied the pregnant woman.

"It's a boy," said the other woman.

Here we go, I thought. Sure enough, the woman launched into an explanation of why the baby was going to be a boy. Then she plunged on ahead with a diatribe about how horrible her second labor was, and how much pain she was in. How they stuck her five times with the needle for the epidural, trying to get it in correctly. How the pregnant woman should avoid drugs as much as possible during the birth.

Seriously, did this poor, pregnant lady really need to hear this two weeks from her due date? I think not.

I'm always fascinated by people like this woman. What compels her to share her life story? And why does she so obviously believe that other people want to hear it?

There may very well be something wrong with me. I rarely share stories about my kids unless I am asked to do so. It's not that I am not ridiculously in love with or proud of my girls. I own both of those emotions. It's that I don't want to bore other people. Or act like my children are better or smarter than someone else's children. Especially that, because it irritates me when other people do that.

I know that, at times, I outsmart myself by not socializing with other mothers. I am sure that many of the things that my girls do that I think are "out there" are really not. It's just that I have nothing to compare it to because I never share my stories with others.

I don't have any New Year's resolutions, but maybe this will be one. Overcome my anti-social behavior and start talking to more mothers.