Highchair of Deathwatch, #2

Seen at a local diner: nifty little chairs that attach directly to the booth's table, saving us from plopping the kid directly in the line of foot traffic. Or it would, if the latch weren't missing two pieces. Same with the replacement chair the waitress brought over, right down to the exact same missing pieces. You'd think the chairs were specifically designed to be defective. So little one ended up in the aisle after all, in the regular-type wooden highchair, but no one knocked him over with a deluxe cheeseburger platter so I guess it worked out.

Seen at a Moe's: And I hate to trash Moe's as I like their food, it seeming less gunky-greasy than at other fastish-food eateries. But seriously, the highchair's latch was completely busted. Had I a spouse handy, I would've sent him to grab a replacement; since it was me and kid and a friend and her kid, plus several trays' worth of food already, I improvised and tied the two ends of the belt around kid's waist. This worked until the end of the meal, when little one got restless and twisty and the belt of course came right undone. But at that point I just shrugged and hauled him out.

Am becoming increasingly convinced that "made for children" is a polite way of saying "made out of cheap and possibly toxic crap."

No class for you!

All I wanted was a Mommy and Me yoga class. Would've been fun. Get toned, meditate, bond with the baby, everybody's happy.  

The studio I go to even had such a class. At least until I got pregnant, and it disappeared. Typically perfect timing. But hey, I thought, plenty of gyms in the area, somewhere in this county is a class for baby and me. And there are, in fact, plenty such classes in the county. Just that they're all at 3 p.m. on a Thursday. Or 11:30 a.m. on a Tuesday. Kiddie classes keep banker's hours. Unfortunately, so do I.

Hey, I don't begrudge the SAHMs a chance to have some fun with their kids (or let their kids blow off steam while they relax, either way). If I were a SAHM I'd be looking for every excuse not to be AH, just for the sake of some sort of human contact. I just don't understand why these classes (and kiddie gym sessions, and storytime, etc.) can't once in a while be on a weekend. You know, so the working moms can also do fun bondy things with their kids, instead of feeling like even the local Y disapproves of their working.

What especially puzzles me is that I live in a New York commuter-heavy area, also home to some major pharmaceutical (and other) companies as well as some massively high taxes. All of which suggests there have to be plenty of other working parents out there, who would maybe like to take their kid to storytime on a Saturday or a Sunday. An underserved market, no?

If I'd kept working nights, of course, this wouldn't be an issue. But then I wouldn't be home to put the kid to bed. The tradeoffs.