Mind Games

          My age makes people uncomfortable. In getting to know other mom friends, the issue is always irritatingly present. There is no one way that people use to seek out this information. Of course, the most obvious way is to simply ask, but I have been bluntly asked by only two individuals that I recall, at least in the parenting world. Some make references to how young I look, with the hopes that I will spill the info. Quite frankly, the more someone seems intent on finding out my true age but is too afraid to ask, the more I withhold any information that will lead them to finding out. It has morphed into a weird little mind game that I’m really beginning to enjoy.

A more comical time occurred on a playdate with a new friend. The other mom was asking questions about my siblings and she was telling me about hers; she mentioned how far apart her and her sister were and I mentioned my husband's youngest brother was only 14 (at the time); instantly you could see her face struggling to maintain its composure as she attempted to calculate just how old that would make my husband, and therefore, approximately me. However, she was missing a key piece of the puzzle; how old my husband was when his brother was born. I don't recall specifically how she worded it, but she managed to get the question out. Much to her dismay, one of the kids ran up at that moment, and she never was able to steer the conversation back to the topic. I felt a small smile creep up on my lips, and a feeling of smug satisfaction remained with me for days to follow.

This may seem odd, or even a bit sick, but I assure you there is history behind this entertainment. On several occasions my age has lead to the end of playdates for my oldest daughter.  This particular occurrence involved a classmate from school; her mom and I spoke every day at pick-up from kindergarten, commiserating over how hard it is to let your oldest go off into the world, discussing the teacher, the school, etc. After a while, the mom invited us to meet at the park after school for a playdate since our oldest girls were such good friends and we both had younger girls around the same age. So I agreed, and the playground chatter naturally turned a little more in-depth than school pick-up chatter. We were getting to know each other, making small talk about where we were from, and for some reason I felt the need to be forthcoming, and explained how I had my oldest when I was seventeen. People take this one of two ways; either they are intrigued and ask a lot of questions or they are shocked and clam up. This mom followed the latter model; she could hardly keep the conversation going at this point, and the playdate ended shortly after. We never received another invitation to the park.