Would you bother?
This woman is very lonely. I feel badly about turning down offers to get together. She is not too bad with her son (he's 1), but I imagine it getting worse as he gets older. She does try to control him a lot -- Do this, do that, don't do that, no, no, no, go there, stand up, push this, say that, yada yada -- and I find this somewhat uncomfortable to be around. She mentioned today that she did CIO on her son for 3 freggin' hours (poor baby!!!). I wasn't about to say "OMG that is SO cruel and sick!" I merely said "Oh. I could never do that." Of course CIO took more than one night. After a couple weeks of hell he started sleeping through the night but recently he is getting up again. I didn't really listen to her details as I was too busy being disgusted.
She is generally nice and likeable. I don't have much of an urge to be a mentor to her and don't think she'd be open to that anyway. She seems really set on creating an obedient child who makes her proud because he is so smart. Her son and mine (who is 14 months old) don't have much interest in each other, but this could change in a few months or even sooner.
What would you do? Visit sometimes, but rarely? Not visit her at all? If so, how would you respond when she calls? We've only had 2 playdates so far and another time we just walked around town.
Just a point of interest: She casually told me that her son is allergic to peanuts. They've come over before and we eat a lot of peanut butter in this house! When I asked a few questions it became clear that she has no clue that peanut allergies can be deadly or that this is something that needs to be discussed with his doctor. I did tell her that much and mentioned that later reactions are often far more severe than the initial one. He also reacts to bananas.
This woman is very lonely. I feel badly about turning down offers to get together. She is not too bad with her son (he's 1), but I imagine it getting worse as he gets older. She does try to control him a lot -- Do this, do that, don't do that, no, no, no, go there, stand up, push this, say that, yada yada -- and I find this somewhat uncomfortable to be around. She mentioned today that she did CIO on her son for 3 freggin' hours (poor baby!!!). I wasn't about to say "OMG that is SO cruel and sick!" I merely said "Oh. I could never do that." Of course CIO took more than one night. After a couple weeks of hell he started sleeping through the night but recently he is getting up again. I didn't really listen to her details as I was too busy being disgusted.
She is generally nice and likeable. I don't have much of an urge to be a mentor to her and don't think she'd be open to that anyway. She seems really set on creating an obedient child who makes her proud because he is so smart. Her son and mine (who is 14 months old) don't have much interest in each other, but this could change in a few months or even sooner.
What would you do? Visit sometimes, but rarely? Not visit her at all? If so, how would you respond when she calls? We've only had 2 playdates so far and another time we just walked around town.
Just a point of interest: She casually told me that her son is allergic to peanuts. They've come over before and we eat a lot of peanut butter in this house! When I asked a few questions it became clear that she has no clue that peanut allergies can be deadly or that this is something that needs to be discussed with his doctor. I did tell her that much and mentioned that later reactions are often far more severe than the initial one. He also reacts to bananas.