Playgroup Politics

You move to a new town, along with some other young moms.

You are delighted to find the local playgroup, which in the nice weather meets at the park. As the weather turns cooler, folks meet at homes or the library. Boy, it’s crowded when more than two or three show up, and the list is long!

One of the new moms thinks, hey, let’s split off a second playgroup, on another day, just for us newbies — it’ll be smaller, less chaotic, and meanwhile there’s still the first playgroup on its own day, so no big deal.

The grapevine reveals the new group to the old group.

The old group has mixed feelings: “who do they think they are?” “why so secretive?” “we tried to be nice and include everyone and then they do this” “should we split into smaller groups, too?” “would the library let us meet every week there, since we’re too big for homes?”

Meanwhile, the original group does start meeting only at the library. And most of the time only two or three show up.

Meanwhile, after spring break, weeks go by without any new moms group.

I wonder how many of the other moms sit at home thinking about how stupid this all is, wishing they could get together with some other moms and kids, but not doing anything about it.

I wonder how many are harboring bitterness towards the new moms group and don’t want anything to do with playgroups anymore.

I wonder what will happen next.