Maybe, but every time I see the title of this thread, I find it hard to not feel like the OP has a thing about children in general. And then after what Claire said, I start to think maybe it's the whole group. It's not hard to change the title of a thread. To me, the title of the thread indicates a bias that the OP probably doesn't mean to indicate.
What an interesting assumption.
I'm not sure if this has been covered yet, but would Mark and Mary (and the group) be willing to compromise on the choice of activity every so often? I realise the OP said the group prefers hanging out on Friday and Saturday nights. But would everyone be open to say, a fun picnic in the park on a Sunday afternoon (perhaps with a nice bottle of wine, if your local by-laws allow it)? That way Mary's family can attend with their toddler, and the group can still hang out, and make noise, etc? This doesn't have to be every week, but once in awhile wouldn't hurt.
Has anyone asked Mary and Mark if they'd be willing to compromise and do a family-friendly activity outside their apartment, when Junior is awake (and hence, make it more palatable for the rest of the group)? If not, that's what I'd be suggesting if I was the OP.
This really just isn't an option. It's not that we prefer to hang out on Friday and Saturday nights. It is that those are the only nights that are feasible for us to hang out on. We all work until around 7 pm on weekdays and Sundays are reserved for church, family, chores and the like. There are very very few options available for family friendly activities that are open 8pm or later on Friday or Saturday night. I don't really want to hang out in parks in my city after dark since they can be dangerous and the zoos aren't open that late. Junior's bed time is around 6-7pm so there is no way we can meet while he is still awake anyway.
I'll try to address each topic that has been brought up but please forgive me if I skip over anything as there are quite a few posts to read through.
@ THREAD TITLEI honestly had no idea you could even change the title. The title comes from a bit of an inside joke because of the excuse Mary and Mark would give not to come along. Whenever they couldn't make it they would always say it was because of the baby. Eventually, whenever someone asked why M&M weren't there, the person hosting would reply it was because of the baby. This is not a slight at Junior who is adorable and has done nothing wrong. This is because M&M would always use Junior as an excuse and always say they couldn't do anything because of the baby/toddler/kid.
@GROUP DYNAMICSHonestly, I'll say that I don't consider Mary to be a very close friend. There are a few friends (in this group and in others) that I would be willing to wake up for at 2 am and drive to the middle of nowhere dodging falling cows and deranged serial killers to pick up. Mary is not one of them. There are different re
lationships in the group and some couples are closer with others. Mark and Mary do have a few people in the group who they probably considers very good friends but even they have tired of all this business.
I do have a bit of an update and some clarification of what happened while Mary and Claire were talking.
UPDATEMy husband is good friends with Clark (Claire's fiance) so he filled me in on what Clark told him happened. Apparently Mary had called about 20 minutes after the FB post and started yelling at Claire who promptly started yelling back (not good, I know). Mary called Claire a selfish "female dog" who didn't know how to treat her friends and how dare she call Junior a brat. Mary also said that she hoped Claire never had children because she would be a terrible mother. This was a
very low blow on Mary's part since, due to medical reasons, Claire will most likely never have the chance to carry a child to term. Obviously, that remark set Claire off and she started crying and telling Mary that she was just horrible before hanging up angrily.
Even with everything that happened I'm disgusted that Mary would stoop so low and attack a very sore point for Claire. Mary and Mark have been removed from the FB group (Claire was Admin). Mary has called a bunch of people in the group to try and complain but everyone has been brushing her off. Frankly, after all of this I have no desire to hang out with Mary ever again. Junior is a cute kid but I feel sorry for him knowing that these are the influences he's going to have in his life.
