The Blind “Mommy” Date: A Cautionary Tale

Something light and fun for your reading pleasure…

Have you ever arrived to a meeting at the right place and the right time, but somehow the wrong person shows up?

And that wrong person is acting like they are the right person in every way?

This happened to a friend of mine.

As a parent of two kids going to a new school my friend, let’s call her Elise, was looking for opportunities to meet other moms. Let’s face it, it’s hard to survive without a strong parent network at your kids’ school especially when you are coming from a different part of the country or even moving to a different school within your district.

Breaking into those tight mommy networks can be near impossible.

Add to that, very little time to work in those mommy social events as a full time career professional.

Elise, however, was undaunted and enthusiastically said yes when her daughter was invited to a concert with two other girls. As it turns out, Elise would be out of town during the concert but not to worry, the two other moms, let’s call them Kathy and Beth, would chaperon all three girls.

The Story Of A Blind “Mommy Date”

Elise connected very well with Kathy and had exchanged cellphone numbers. So far, so good. But Elise relied a bit too much on her smartphone. She asked Kathy to send her a text so she would have her phone number but failed to actually attach Kathy’s name to that number.

I can’t tell you the number of times I have received text messages from other parents for car pools etc. and it comes in as just a number. How embarrassing to have to ask who it is – especially when they seem to know you so well…but I digress.

The concert date arrives and Elise, being out of town on business, is happy to see a steady stream of photos and videos from who she “thinks” is Kathy. Remember she didn’t actually get Kathy’s information into her phone so when she saw the photos come in under a number she made the leap that is was Kathy.

Okay you need to remember this for later in the story.

A few weeks later as a thank you for the concert and to further her relationship with Kathy, Elise set up a lunch date for the two of them at a swank downtown location.

But when she showed up, it was Beth, not Kathy sitting at the table sipping on a glass of chardonnay.

Elise was a little rattled but didn’t let it show. She assumed that Kathy had simply invited Beth to the lunch without Elise knowing. So Elise said “oh hi Beth….is Kathy coming?”

Where upon Beth said, “gee I really don’t know, did you invite her too?”

So what happened?

It turns out this whole time, Elise had been texting with Beth. Beth had sent the photos and videos from the concert, not Kathy. So when Elise set up the lunch, she used the latest text string…which was with Beth, not Kathy.

The lunch turned out to be a bit of a blind date but the story ends well with both Elise and Beth hitting it off.

So what is the moral of the story?

A. Always connect names to random cell phone numbers that come into your text stream

B. Embrace life’s chaos

C. All of the above

I pick “B.” 

What’s your pick?