OH MY GOD! Ok, I must not have had any experience with truly sensitive people in my life before, because I never dreamed that anything could be so misconstrued and taken as a personal attack as it has in the MOMS Club I am a member of.
We meet for weekly playgroups, and in our particular one, we have a mix of babies and toddlers. Some of the moms in the group with only one baby were getting concerned about the group being mixed, because the two year olds can be very unpredictable and sometimes aggressive and such, and the babies have no way of defending themselves. So, we started an open forum to discuss people’s concerns and come up with a solution together. They came up with the idea for a siblings group, where moms with toddlers, and a new baby, could meet and that way the toddlers could play together while the moms held the babies and talked. We all thought this was a great idea, and that the moms with more than one kid would jump on it and be happy. But oh were we wrong.
One gal in particular took it as a personal attack and is very , very mad. And she seems to be focusing her anger at me, because I suggested starting the open forum for everyone to talk. And then I made the mistake of offering to take over the baby group when she went over to the siblings group, and she took that to mean that she was kicked out of our group, and that no one liked her and her son.
Oh man, I can’t believe how misconstrued things can get. I’m not sure what to do other than keep assuring her that no one meant it as a personal attack, and that we still want her in the group if she doesn’t want to go to the siblings group, and keep appologizing for the misunderstanding. I feel terrible, but I can’t control other people’s emotions and feelings ya know? What would you do?
Oh well, hopefully she’ll get over it soon!