Play Dates And Other Couples With Kids: What Do You Do When You’re Stood Up At The Disco?

We were stood up, literally, at a Disco. Now we know what Donna Summer was complaining about all those years (maybe still is?)

We were invited to an event called Baby Loves Disco Saturday afternoon. A few months ago we had gone to this engagements’ premiere with a few other friends and their small kids, which turned out to be a total bust. The concept is pretty cool - mixing once clubbing parents with Gymboree and fruity drinks with Belvedere Vodka. The first L.A. event was held at a stinky place on east Melrose near the 101 – a neighborhood you don’t want to be at even in bright daylight. That old location lacked simple things like air conditioning, soap, and running water (kind of like Tijuana.) The new location is much better – and right near the Chinese Theater and Roosevelt hotel.

A couple had invited us there for a play date; they have one girl around the same age as ours. They’re really nice people we met awhile back shortly after our daughter was born; they recently moved to L.A. from San Francisco. The dad works in the fashion industry and the mom in media sales. We’d like to think that they’re our kind of ‘peeps’ - pretty hip, joke-cracking, and creative people - the only exception being that they dress better – Fred Segal types, while we’re Target ones (not really, but you know what I mean.)
While leaving the Disco it was hard not wondering if something was wrong with the relationship if they decided to skip out on us. I don’t know, did we not call enough? Did I go too far with the La Leche League joke? Did they meet another couple along the way that’s ‘cooler’ or (gulp) watches football!?
The mom had called us after shortly after leaving the Disco; apparently the dad went on a bike ride earlier that lasted longer than he had anticipated – and she was really upset about it. No harm done, we weren’t troubled at all and it didn’t prevent us from having fun (we did, and got some pretty cool freebies.)

One thing I noticed, after we had our daughter, is that becoming a new parent makes you unconsciously seek other couples in the same situation as your own (in our case new parents with one kid.) In some weird way, it's like dating all over again.
It’s not that we’re unhappy with our current friends (all 95% of them with no kids) we still very much enjoy seeing them just as we did before our daughter was born. They’re just like us, except we have a kid. Its just sometimes it’s nice to talk freely about ‘kid stuff’ , like poop shapes resembling celebrities and odd-colored fluids without feeling a little strange.

Am I the only one here?