Ruining my child's life...one playdate at a time

Every day that I picked my son up from the sitter's house this week resulted in him crying his eyes out and saying, 'I don't want to', which is very hard to understand not only coming from a 21 month old's mouth, but from a crying one? It was like trying to decipher Beaker from the Muppet Show.

Today, though, I did not have to work and we could finally enjoy a full day together. All week we had a playdate planned for the afternoon and my son and I were looking forward to it very much. The precious little sweetheart took his nap on time and I had to wake him up for his lunch so that we would not be late for his haircut which was an hour before his playdate. So far we were having a great day, no tears and a well behaved little boy.

My son sat still for his entire haircut with the promise of a lolli-pop at the end, which the lady always gives him. He then even sat on my lap while I got my eyebrows waxed (ye-owwch!) and happily enjoyed his tasty treat. We then proceeded on our merry little way to our playdate. So far, still a great day without tears and to top it all off, my son was being the sweetest little boy ever. Mommy dearest was about to ruin all that, though...

We arrived at our friend's house 10 minutes early and my son squiggled out of his seat and ran to the door. He knocked on the door and danced in place with pure delight knowing that soon he could PLAY! I rang the door bell and waited with him. He kept knocking on the door and their dog kept barking at us from inside the house. I knocked again. My son danced some more, no longer containing the joy that was inside him. We waited for awhile, but still no one. Disappointed, I told my son that we would have to leave and herded him to the car. As we were leaving I saw their Golden Retriever peeking his head out through the curtains wondering where we were going. I put my son in his carseat and you want to hear a kid scream! He was so sad, he broke my heart and it was all I could do not to cry along with him. I wondered what happened to my friend and her son, why they were not answering the door? They knew we were coming over. Did something happen and they had to leave? Were they still napping and couldn't hear us at the door? Sad and confused, we drove away. The whole time my son was crying uncontrollably. He finally stopped, but then started crying again! I had no idea how to make it up to him...I almost brought him to the sitter's house just so he had someone to play with!

About a half hour after we were supposed to have our playdate, my friend called me wondering what happened to us. What happened to us?! I was confused. I explained to her that we came by and no one answered, and that the dog was barking at us from inside the house. She said that they were home the whole time, that she didn't remember the dog barking and wondered if I was at the right house. I assured her I had been (we had visited before) and described her house in detail to her, plus we had seen her Golden Retriever peeking out at us through the window. After talking out possible things that could of happened we discovered that I was knocking on her neighbor's door...who has the EXACT same house as her...AND has a Golden Retriever like her!!!

How dumb can one person be??! I felt so stupid and so sad that I not only ruined my son's playdate, but another child's playdate as well! Mother Of The Year right here, folks. So apparently the way to reward a child for being on their best behaviour all day, for being the sweetest little boy that makes you proud to be his Mommy is to break his heart and make him cry. No wonder this kid cries when he sees Cruella Deville picking him up from daycare! You'll be happy to know that I have now turned my son's Education fund into a Therapy fund...he'll be needing that more.