While Sarah was at preschool this morning, Ellie and I went to Barnes & Noble. I was mostly going there beacuse it is a blustery day and I wanted to buy a hazelnut steamer at Starbucks, but since we were there I thoght we could loiter in the kids section for a while. Ellie had a blast playing with the Thomas the Tank Engine train table and unshelving hundreds of picture books for me to read to her.
While we were playing there, a guy and his 22 mo. daughter came and we struck up a conversation. He and his family used to live NYC and he could really relate to the huge cultural differences we've experienced since moving to happy valley. One of the things that has been most difficult is the dearth of activities for toddlers here. There are plenty of things for 3+ kids, but for 2's and under: nada. Correction, the Provo library has a beautiful children's room with a toddler time, but it is SOO crowded on the two mornings they hold it that it's often hard to enjoy and of course, the centralized checkout lines before and after are a nightmare as well. Why is it that this land of MANY small children has so few public offerings for them? Resource scarcity? No interest from people with huge houses of their own? Needs all filled by church community?
I guess I'm going to need to be a self-starter here in finding some friends for my kids here once Julie & fam leave. Where to start? the ward? the neighborhood? the local parks (not that there are ever any kids there)? Guess I'm going to need friends for myself as well. That might even be more difficult -- though perhaps I can make friends with the moms of my kids friends . . .
So much for any attempt at depth or craft.
I am happy to have stumbled across your blog! It is always nice to meet other Mom's.
ReplyDeleteI don't live in the Provo area so I am really no help with toddler activities.
I think sometimes in life, the self starters, are the best starters.
Good luck to you!
It can't be right that there aren't resources available--property is relatively cheap; it doesn't take that much to entertain toddlers; and there are things for 3+ kids. Maybe it's a political action problem--most of the people who spend their time with toddlers either get paid (nannies) or don't have their interests adequately represented in local politics (moms). In a culture where women are encouraged to stay at home with children, when possible, there's got to be a dearth of women involved in political processes. (I could be wrong empirically, but, logically, this is what I'd expect in Provo.)
ReplyDeleteyou're probably right, Bry. I guess that may be part of the point. People just don't need each other much here. They've all got extended family or have lived in the same neighborhood for so long that they've got a full circle of friends. Why lobby for some activities to hang out with strangers when you could be in your own neighborhood with people you already know and like? Just tough for thosae of us trying to break into the crowd.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm really no better as far as insularity. Even when we did meet people at the park, etc. we rarely carried the friendships any further.
I was proud of myself this year for Sarah's birthday party though, because I invited some kids from the ward and from her school class whose parents I've never met. They all came and it was really fun for her and I get to know the parents a little bit. Now that's one more face I recognize in RS or in the parents meetings at school.