The 'first' coffee morning..

So I faced my fear and went to a mum and baby 'coffee morning' - not out of my own free will but because a friend I was meeting said we should do this instead.  No way out Scarlett this thing going to happen...

First challenge was getting myself and Finley washed, dressed fed and ready to leave the house...all by 9.30 am. It was like a scene out of matrix with nappies, wipes and bottles being thrown into the bag at break neck speed while dressing Finley and making sure his favourite toy was packed for the car journey.

We managed to make it out, all be it 15 minutes late, and we were ready to meet the mums and their bundles of "joy" - I use that term loosely as follows:

The hall was set out with loads of play equipment and split into two halves - one for the babies and one for the walkers and up - I later found out that this divided room was a complete waste of time as the walkers plus were freely stamping all through the baby area regardless of babies laying playing or not. These children's mums were too busy having their 'coffee' and chatting across the room to notice the stampeded  through the baby mats and I caught one boy twice before he landed on Finley. I decided the safest measure was to sit on the floor with my legs either side of him as a buffer, I then became a target being hit by a sensory ball!

The dressing up box seemed to be a popular port of call for the children and one girl obviously got the first pick as she was running towards us wearing a fairy costume covered by a Mexican poncho and a huge sombrero while screaming 'eeeeeeeeeee'.

I did get chatting to a lovely lady with a 10 week old baby girl who had that slightly frazzed look that I had when Finley was that age, she introduced herself to me and together we chatted while being a combined force against the surrounding rampage. She even managed to latch the baby on and feed her while continuing eye contact with me...now that's an expert skill to have learnt, I never managed to accomplish this when I was breast feeding Finley.

I also was a rebel of the group by not signing in...I was approached by the group leader to advise that next time I must sign in and I was handed a form to fill in with all my details for the 'next time'...hmmm, they now have my telephone number and know where I live eek!

 So what is the etiquette regarding telling off other peoples children? If a child does something dangerous or hurtful to your child is it frowned upon to say to them that "that wasn't nice"? I kept it safe and just smiled sweetly while edging Finley ever closer to me for protection from some of these wild children.  Maybe there is an unwritten 'coffee morning' rule that I have yet to learn.

I must also add that with it being half term there were numerous school age children there so maybe I had picked the 'dangerous' week to go, they will be back in school now till Easter.

Will I be going back you probably wonder...Well Finley seemed to enjoy the element of danger and slept soundly as soon as we had left so maybe I will brave it once more just to make up my mind....

Scarlett x