MOMS Club

It has been such an interesting day. As I already said, I haven’t been in the store very much.

And now, I am in the midst of deja vu (all over again). There is a MOMS Club banquet at the wine bar tonight! For any of you I know from the MOMS Club that are reading this, I can almost guarantee you either said, “OMG you’re kidding,” or burst out laughing. How long was I president? I know in the book as I was given someone wrote that they thought I would be president until our children graduated from high school. That was clearly my signal to RETIRE!

As are typical with MOMS Club banquets, there are lots of thank yous, lots of flowers, lots of gifts and lots of tears. They opened with “what MOMS Club has meant to me,” which, of course, brought the memories flooding back to me. Some of my closest friends are women I met at MOMS Club. In fact, at the last annual banquet I attended, I wrote Chris her “letter,” in which I asked her to Beckett’s godmother.

I have to admit that I don’t think about MOMS Club all that often, although with the advent of Facebook, I am happy to be back in touch with so many of you again. It was a great time of my life and I cherish the memories for myself and for Frank.

Frank is a kid whose teachers always comment that he gets along with any age group. He never sticks to only those in his class, he hangs out with kids older, kids younger, it makes no difference to him. And he fits in with all of them. Every parent-teacher conference I’ve had, that comes up. Each of his teachers tell me how unique Frank is in that way. I attribute it to MOMS Club.

I will never forget the first park day I went to. That day I met Alicia Light, June Batista, Jane Watson and Chris Piovesan. When we were in California last summer, four of the five us got together at the beach and it was if no time whatsoever had passed, either for us or for our children, who get along as well as we do.

Alicia gave Frank his first pretzel. It was that day I learned that kids ALWAYS want someone else’s food, NOT the snack you packed for them. And more importantly, I learned that was OKAY. As a somewhat older new mom, I was probably more concerned with doing it “right” than I should have been. These women taught me that whatever I did was right, and if it wasn’t, it would all work out anyway.

I’m not sure what kind of mother I would be without my MOMS Club experience. Less patient I’m sure. Less tolerant of my own children and other people’s children. Less tolerant of other mothers, or more judgmental I suppose. I learned so much about sacrifice and smiling in the face of it. And most importantly, to simply have fun, cherish the moment, and to remember as much as I possibly can and not wish for any instant to go by faster than it already does.

So once again, in the spirit of the banquet taking place tonight, I thank each one of you I know from the MOMS Club. And I want you to know that I miss you, very much.