the summer playdate signup sheets

I spotted them at the other side of the gazebo at the preschool end-of-year party. The moms with sign up sheets for summer playdates.

In theory, it's a good idea. A group of kiddos get together throughout the summer to romp around a park, wearing each other out so that us SAHMs can enjoy a nap time (I don't get those right now).

But my fear--the thing that makes me start to sweat and run in the other direction in hopes of avoiding the signup sheet--is the reality that while my kids enjoy the organized chaos called playdates, I'll be on the sideline making conversation with other SAHMs...conversation about our kids, their schools, our houses, our husbands. We likely have similar stories, similar days, similar...everything? 

I can talk only so much about my day at home. What I also need--no, what I crave--is gossip. Entertainment gossip (shock and awe that Jesse James feels bad), please. Heck, I even prefer to trade trash magazines instead of coupons. And if I really want to satisfy a craving, I'd like to talk about photography...and editing...and poses... this topic, of course, minimizes my social circle, but a girl can dream (Britt, where are you?). There are other topics of interest--too many to name, really. But the gist of this is that I want to talk about things outside of my kids.

Does this make me a bad SAHM? I don't think so. I think it makes me an interesting one. And maybe I just haven't found the right summer playdate signup crew for me.