
I wasn’t sure what to expect when a fellow mum and good friend of mine began telling me in hushed tones, about a disappointing ‘date night’ with her husband.
They had booked a table at a fancy restaurant in the city, arranged a babysitter and got dressed up for their once-in-a-blue-moon night out. They wrangled their toddler into bed after his bath, dinner and story time; tidied up the kitchen, ran through the ‘in case of emergencies’ list with the babysitter, and FINALLY left the house ready for a relaxing child-free night.
They arrived at the swish chef’s-hatted establishment and were about to breathe a sigh of blessed relief and order a wine, when they were seated next to – you guessed it – a couple with a baby.
My friend went on to confess:
“I felt so conflicted because while I know what it is like to be a parent, we had just left our little person behind for a night of freedom and honestly my heart sank when I saw that pram. I couldn’t say anything or ask to be moved, instead I swapped sympathetic and reassuring ‘we’re parents too’ smiles when the baby cried.”
