There is a definite social awkwardness when you throw 15 new prep mums in a room – at least until you pour a glass of champas. Cliques appear and people get stuck talking to one person about their arduous birth story…until you start speed mingling.
Yes ‘speed mingling’ is my all-female version of speed meeting/dating and this two minute chat and move on game can actually break the ice for many and open you up to a whole new mix of people and conversations.
In one speed mingle I realized that if you have a female baby that’s overdue, the estrogen in their body can cause them to have a baby period. (I never knew that.) I talked about boys and sport and the popularity battle if you aren’t physically inclined. We discussed emotion from songs and how the tune and the words can turn us into wet blankets. I’m never having twins with reflux and after two minutes of ears only, I have total admiration for all parents of twins. Then there was the whole Catholic thing of not sleeping in the same bed with our partners at our parents’ home and the “mattress on the floor” rule before we were married. All these came from snippets of speed mingling. It’s amazing when conversation is limited, it can indeed be very enlightening and lighthearted.
Nerves and pretenses had subsided and by the end of the night we had moved from cocktails and double chin photos to joking about hot chocolates out of our “bidets.” There should be more speed mingling conversations!
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