Mommy competitivness

I have this facebook friend. I know, that isn't real friendship. But with the way life tends to get busy between work and kids and activities and SCHOOL, it comes close enough.

Well, this facebook friend has a child who is about two, maybe one and a half. Still a baby really. And she's been hunting for shoes for him for the past TWO DAYS! Apparently this has involved trips to multiple stores in multiple parts of Wichita. She seems unsatisfied with anything she finds.

The problem isn't cost. She's a licensed psychologist in a city full of crazy folks. Its the shoes. None are quite right for her child.

I buy shoes for my toddler at Walmart. I pay less than ten dollars a pair. I realize the cheap footware is, well, cheap, but with little kids, it isn't that important. I mean really . . . what is the freaking deal?

And I thought on this all day and realized. Its mommy guilt. We go over the top to buy things for our tiny children because we feel bad about the amount of time we can't spend with them.

I am just as bad as anyone about that. I don't spend on shoes, but I do take them out to movies and allow the little two to sleep in my bed. It amounts to the same thing. I wish I could spend all day with them, and I only get half the weekends with them. So the weekends and evenings I have, I make special. Not so different from running all over the city looking for the perfect shoes for an 18 month old.

The retired folks next door have company that will be there for quite a while. One of their sons does some sort of job that takes him out of the country for long stretches. He just finished some time in China and is going to Bahrain in November. For now he, his wife and kids are staying next door.

Their kinda different. The kids are about Gideon and Noah's age, but the parent is almost as old as my dad. And very standoffish. Even the kiddos. My poor guys spend all evening waiting for them to come out and play.

There is also a Friend down the road, he's in the same Kindergarten class as Gideon. The boys all play together. Its very cute.

I think I have a sinus infection. I hate the feeling and I hate goign to the doctor.

I'm pretty good at my job.