Other People's Kids...

6/26/09

I have two beautiful daughters – 5 and 2 year’s old. My husband and I adore them, although we’re the first to admit to being overwhelmed, feeling like we have no time for ourselves, and cringing at what they do to our house. It has occurred to me, however, that while I am a mom, I am not particularly fond of other people’s kids.

Don’t get me wrong…I like my two nieces and my nephew, and am sure I will gush over the arrival of another set of twins in the immediate family. My friends with kids (the few of them…more on that later) have children that I like to be around, if only because it gives my kids something to do. But other people’s kids?

Before my husband and I decided to have kids – and it was a long decision in the making – I was the person who consciously avoided any spot on the beach near families. And when one of those extended tribes of mixed adults with a gaggle of 6-12 year olds in tow traipsed its was towards us, I would literally cringe, roll my eyes, and suggest we move.

A backpacking trip to Spain when I was 30 convinced me that I was already. Of course, Europeans are a million times cooler with children than Americans are, so my frame of reference was perhaps a bit skewed.

I don’t exactly know what it is - especially when kids get to be 7 or 8 years old and they are just NOT CUTE anymore. I mean, admit it, other people’s toothless, gawky, loud second graders are just not that much fun to be around.

This is a problem. When a group of bicycle and scooter-riding youngsters came carousing down our normally quiet street, both my 5 year old and I looked at them in horror. I don’t want to breed a misanthropist, but I suspect she’s just as bothered by noisy elementary school kids as I am.

Maybe part of it is that my peers are not all suburban soccer moms. Many are late 30s and unmarried, childfree, or much older with grown kids. Even if I did have a gang of Mommy and Me members to hang out with, I wouldn’t. So, I need a support group or something for this problem. Are there others out there who are PWDOPK (Parents Who Dislike Other People's Kids)??????