waaaay back when, one of mama nabi's posts had some of us commenting about our desire for mixed-race playgroups, or at least some way for our kiddos to see and play with kids who *big shock!* might look like them, or heck, at least look different than what's considered the "norm" in our various areas. at first, even blair didn't really understand what i'd want from such a group, but i think he mainly didn't understand just how homogenous my moms' group really is. since knowledge of the group travels mainly by word of mouth and the occasional online search, i guess it's just not getting to the more diverse communities... or those moms are all too busy with their own groups, working daytime jobs, or the million other things that keep us all super busy. i do know several korean moms, for instance, who have korean-only playgroups... and by that, i mean all of their kids speak korean, the moms speak only korean, etc. since i wouldn't exactly fit in with such a "hard-core" group, i was hoping to find a group of laid-back multicultural moms with kids around the same age who'd be interested in playtime and the random discussion about culture and such.
so i posted a note about it on my local community website.
and another on craigslist.
and i got... nada.
but then by random luck, a new mom joined the moms' group. it's such a big group that there are all sorts of sub-groups by location, interest, and so forth; sarah also joined the "world cultures" sub-group that i'm a member of and posted her introduction. we quickly started exchanging emails and amazingly, with little effort, she and i decided to put together a korean playgroup of sorts! we've been meeting for the past couple of months; after a slow start, she found a few other moms who are also interested in korean culture, so now we've got:
c'mon, you knew there'd have to be something yummy involved, right? it all comes back to the paht. and sac sac. mmmmm...
so i posted a note about it on my local community website.
and another on craigslist.
and i got... nada.
but then by random luck, a new mom joined the moms' group. it's such a big group that there are all sorts of sub-groups by location, interest, and so forth; sarah also joined the "world cultures" sub-group that i'm a member of and posted her introduction. we quickly started exchanging emails and amazingly, with little effort, she and i decided to put together a korean playgroup of sorts! we've been meeting for the past couple of months; after a slow start, she found a few other moms who are also interested in korean culture, so now we've got:
- sarah, a korean mom who grew up mostly here in the states, with daughter hailey
- linda, another korean-american mom, with her half-korean daughter ava
- tina, a 1/4th korean and 1/4th japanese mom, with her hapa son nate
- nikki, a caucasian mom, with her korean adopted son issac
c'mon, you knew there'd have to be something yummy involved, right? it all comes back to the paht. and sac sac. mmmmm...
I'm jealous! I'm going to have to find a playgroup like that here. With food to boot?? You can't lose! It must be great for Emmy to see other 'mixed' faces. :) Glad you got your group going!
I'm jealous too! I'm so glad that you were able to connect with some other mothers of Korean/ hapa kids. I do have some white-married-to-Korean friends with kids, but we don't see them often enough.
This is absolutely wonderful. I know we must sound like such losers to be excited about this, but I don't care! The kids look like they are getting along famously. So happy for you!
Also wanted to say, our babies are looking less and less "baby" everyday ... wow. If we could only get T, Emmy, and all the kids together ... someday!
i'm so happy for you, kim. it's so important to find a group where you feel you belong. i'm sure your thursdays will be so much fun from now on.
I'm jealous also. It must be so cool to be able to find other moms.
I'm so jealous (and you know I am) that I almost don't even want to comment... not just that, Emmy gets dance class buddies...? Man, that is just too awesome. I can't decide whether I'm more happy for you or more brimming with so much envy that I'm tempted to relocate to your neighborhood. And how cute are the kids together in that picture, hm?!?! Kudos for finding such a great group of moms AND toddlers. You rock.
Thanks for all the comments, gals, but know what's funny? YOU're all the inspiration for this!!! I don't think I realized what I was missing out on until I started reading your blogs and watching all your kids grow. It really made me realize that I needed to find other moms who could understand the random Korean aspects of our life, from the foods to the holidays to dealing with crazy family members! And this local group is the next best thing to having you all here... although if anyone's looking to relocate to the DC area... heh heh heh
and my first thought was "dude why haven't I thought about that?" I am so tired of my kids being the exotic factor in every children of the corn playgroup around here.
much jealousy and sulking over here! :0)
Congrats on finding such a cool group! Wow, I never thought of using Craigslist to start a mommy group. What a great idea.
oh man! i'm jealous too! mainly cuz i'm too lazy to start anything like this.
glad this is working out for you! those kids are gonna have fun growing up through toddlerhood together, and hopefully beyond.
I just came across your blog and a request that was looking for dolls with Asian faces. Have you ever seen the Carpantina dolls? http://www.carpatina.com/ They are just gorgeous and when we get a catalog my girls drool and whine over which one they want. They are probably a little "old" for your little one right now, but when she is seven or eight they will be perfect.
Got any room for an occasional interloper with a 2 year old??
Sounds like a great group - good for you!
I'm a fellow mom and new blogger (inspired by Superha), and I enjoy reading your blog & certainly this post. I'm a Caucasian mom of an adopted Chinese American girl, & daddy is Filipino Mexican. Growing up I always had a variety of American friends- Chinese, Vietnamese, African, Indian . . . - and honestly, I never thought about race, ethnicity or culture as much as I do now that I'm a mom. It's fantastic you've found such a great play group!
You're little one is adorable.
Kim, so happy to read that you've found a Korean play group....so jealous! Just catching up on everyone's posts....been very busy at work and home, great photos of Emmy, she's beautiful!
oh wow. I wish we have a playgroup here in NY. but mainly all the toddlers are all korean or all something else. So I just stay with all korean. My daughter is 3/4 korean and part irish and french.