By: Karen Musclow
After I got my job as a nanny, my SAHM friends immediately started talking of getting together and having play dates. I was very excited about this and thought of all the fun things we could do together with the children and that, best of all, I’d be able to hang out with my friends every other week or so. Sound great, doesn’t it? But then, reality hit. My at-home friends live almost a full hour away from where I work! Was I really going to put the children in the car for two hours just to hang out with my friends? And then, on top of that, charge Family D mileage? It quickly struck me that this was not going to work.
Through an acquaintance, I quickly found and connected with other nannies through CincyNanny. I saw that they schedule play dates and hold Nannies Night Out and I thought “what a great solution.” However, once again, reality struck as most of the play dates are north of the river and I work on the south side. Or they were on Wednesdays, when I don’t work. Or at times that just don’t mesh with the children’s schedule. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great group and I enjoy hanging out with all of them after work hours. But for me, most of the daytime get-togethers just aren’t practical.
I was starting to feel a bit frustrated and so I stopped looking around at options for a while. Then school started and I was faced with having a three-year-old who no longer had his daily playmate around. I decided I needed to find some type of playgroup to get involved with in order to provide socialization for T (and me!). I decided that I would need to reach out and make some new friends. With Family D’s permission, I visited www.Momslikeme.com and went to the Cincinnati site. I then began scouring the message boards for playgroups.
I found one, located in NKY, which sounded like it might be a good fit. This group uses www.meetup.com to connect and plan outings. I visited their Meetup page and found that it was a great fit! Mostly stay-at-home moms with children preschool-age and younger. When I filled out the information to join the group, I made sure to clarify that I am the nanny, not the mom. The leader said that was no issue at all and readily accepted me. The group meets numerous times a month in all sorts of venues and all different days of the week. We go when we can and it’s no big deal if we can’t. In fact, though the group has about 40 members, there are usually only 5-10 at any particular play date. Most of the activities are free or of little charge, so I don’t feel like I’m spending too much of Family D’s money. I also feel love it because it’s local and I don’t rack up a lot of mileage joining in.
I was a bit nervous the first few times we joined in, but the women are welcoming and made me feel at ease quickly. T loves being able to play with others his own age and E (11 months) seems to enjoy watching everything. If you’re looking to get out and get socialized, I’d strongly recommend checking out your local playgroups. It has certainly worked well for us!