So, my neighbor brings over her new next-door neighbor to meet us yesterday. Ordinarily, I would have been sociable, but I hid out in my office. First of all, it was dinnertime. But more importantly, I was still working, trying to finish just one task, by god. Plus, I was wearing a nightie and drinking a glass of fume blanc. Obviously not presentable -- though the new neighbor might as well get used to it, because almost everyone in my street has seen the nightie, the frantic overworked frown, and the glass of dinner wine.
(Neighbors, if you're reading this...any time after 5 p.m., please don't come a'callin'.)
Anyway. Seems this family has a child a year older than mine, because I heard muffled talks of a prospective playdate. Rather, I heard the woman talking, while my painfully shy children, mouths full of IKEA meatballs, apparently said nothing.
I heard: "You guys can come over to our house! We have [unclear] Hannah Montana! You'll like that, right? And we have a Wii, and [muffled] Xbox."
Still no response from my kids, presumably due to meatballs but also potentially because they don't really give a crap, bless their hearts. The Dude laughed a bit to cover the awkward silence and says something like, "Well, they're more into DS." "Oh, [kids name] has one of those, too!" New Neighbor replies.
Ordinarily, I would have sent my kids over, just to meet the new kid and make nice, but honestly, now I'm put off. Why try to entice kids over to your place with stuff? Why not just say, hey, you look like nice kids, and my kid would love to get to know you better?
(Wondering here if I should mention that the new family has two monstrous matching BMW SUVs. Same color, even. Kind of plays into the impressed-by-stuff theme...but maybe they own a BMW dealership. Or got a two-for-one deal. So I won't mention it.)
Full disclosure: We have a Wii, which The Dude bought for himself. The kids don't play it except with him, but I did use it to try to entice my teenage catsitter to hang around a little, which would make my cats very, very happy while we're away. But it's different, somehow. Right? To his credit, the catsitter was unimpressed.
~BurbMom
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