Play Groups

Today is cloudless, but bone cold. My hands froze in my gloves as I pushed my son to our morning play group. Play groups are a wonderful feature of life in Walthamstow with a young child. Every morning and most afternoons, for a pound or so some church or school or children's center will open its doors to toddlers and parents for a couple of hours and provide the kids with lots of toys and usually a snack. If you're lucky there will be tea and cake for the grown ups, too. The kids enjoy the toys, and occasionally each other. For adults, it's a way out of the house, and a chance to talk with other grown ups. I've met most of my friends in Walthamstow either at play groups or playgrounds. And there's always common ground between parents. We can all talk about sleep deprivation or teething or first words. And it turns out that if the conversation goes on a little longer, you often learn that you're talking to a teacher, an academic, a speech writer, a psychotherapist, a publisher, or an artist. Sometimes you get to talk about your work, or at least your process, and everyone can commiserate about the lack of time we have to do our own things.
I only go to one play group a week, and it's a small one. It's in the multi-purpose room of a church. They have a kettle out so you can make your own tea and fruit for the kids on a big plastic folding table. It's actually the adults who sit around the table, drinking their tea, and handing bits of fruit down to the children who beg for it. Every play group has a few scoot-along cars that all the children want. There are several books, a corner for duplo, and another for baby gyms. Today there was a small table covered in paper for drawing. Mothers breastfeed their little ones wherever they are. No one is shy or uses a cover. No one is made up or dressed up. There is always a dad or two and sometimes several. Near the end, everyone cleans up and then there are ten or fifteen minutes of singalong. We all know the songs because they're the same at every play group, and our kids all have favorites that they request over and over at home. Now, in America I guess the next step would be to have a play date with the parents you like. In England, you ask your fellow parent over for tea. There are biscuits (cookies) and once again you try to carry on an adult conversation in between being pulled around to play with this toy or to read that book. One of the things I love about Walthamstow is that we all walk to play groups and to each other's houses. We are all neighbors. As a parent I live more in my neighborhood and more in my house than I ever did before.