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On becoming anti-social

I am a pretty social person (at least I think so), I tend to make friends easily and keep them (mostly), but sometimes I wonder if being at home alone with the baby makes me want to be home alone even more. My neighbor keeps asking me about coming to the playgroups and the monthly meetings of the Mom's club that we both belong to, and my standard answer is "I'm not sure..I'll have to see". This, even though I know full well that I'm probably not going to go.

Having worked for so long, always having to be aware of the time and my numerous appointments, I guess being at home with no set schedule is absolutely divine! There is something about waking up in the morning without having anything I have to do (except get Lucas off to school on time or close to it). I am very reluctant to commit to appointments..and I can avoid them, so I do. Now how many people can say that about their lives?

A long time ago, I was telling a friend that I was stressed. He looked at me as if I had said something particularly stupid and said "Well, eliminate the source of stress in your life". Yes folks, simple yet profound. But what if people are causing me stress? Well, if there are people causing you stress, and you can't do anything about it then have them in your life less. Ahhhh. Not that I am avoiding people, but more stressful situations. So, the thought of packing up 2 kids, with snacks and watching what they're doing and eating for a 1/2 hour monthly meeting adds up to stress in my mind...so I avoid it. Avoiding stress is another reason I am a stay-at-home mom, but perhaps that is in the category of "stress-exchange" rather than straight "stress-reduction". No matter, it is working for me at this point, largely because of the points above.

But all is not lost, I am finding that I can be very social with limited stress in very small groups (and preferably without the children in tow). There may come a time yet when I actually make it to one of the monthly meetings.

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