Not Cut Out for This

Ahh, the guilt. I am so grateful to have a happy, healthy, relatively well adjusted child. I should welcome the time I get to spend with her and her friends. However, I am so not cut out for large gatherings of small children--especially when I am not in charge of the situation and have no control over schedules and itineraries! It was just 24 hours worth, and I feel like I have been put through the wringer.

Via tube, we hauled our overnight bags north to Hampstead where one of the four international centers of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides are located. Then after all the girls arrived, girls and moms headed to Pizza Express for dinner. Sixty people in the upper room of this restaurant. The noise was awful and the temperature continued to rise. Of course, my daughter thought the pizza was too "saucy" and began to cry at her seat because there was nothing for her to eat. I managed to get her an extra order of breadsticks and told her to deal.

Then we went back to the lodge where some of the college age girl guides led us in some games. I am really awful, but I guess I'm a little bit of a snob about group games. Been to too many camps and conferences where I've played games and even attended workshops to learn new games and how to lead them. So, I thought it was all pretty lame. I am a bad person.

When it was time to dismiss and head for the rooms, no instructions were given to the girls or the parents about bedtimes/lights out, etc. It was basically a free-for-all for a group of girls aged 6 to 13. Our group was the only one in the lodge, so there were no outsiders to consider. I finally got Maddie to sleep at 10:30.

After breakfast at the lodge, we all headed back to the tube and went to the Transportation Museum at Covent Gardens. At one point, I had to sneak off with Maddie to the snack bar and get her something to eat. I think she's hypoglycemic or at least has a tendency toward it. If that child goes more than 3 hours without some food, she starts to fall apart. By the end of the tour, everyone had had enough group activity, and we all split up for lunch. We grabbed some food with friends Gina and Megan before taking two trains and a bus to get home.

We got home a little before 3 p.m. and Skip was here to greet us. He took Maddie to our park to kick around the soccer ball and I went to bed. When they got back from the park, Maddie watched tv and Skip went for a run. They finally made me get up at 5 so we could grab some dinner. I may need a few more days to recouperate.