When we walked into Jumping Beans in Wake Forest last week, I sat down at a table while my kids hurried into the inflatable bounce houses. I was looking forward to using the Wi-Fi to catch up on some writing while my kids burned off some of their endless amounts of energy.

As I opened up my laptop, I heard my daughter’s familiar voice call "Mommy! I want you to play with me." I told her that I needed to work for a few minutes and would come play with her in a minute. However, I admit that I was secretly hoping that she would make a friend and forget about wanting me to play with her.

I immediately felt the all-too-familiar mommy guilt as the words came out of my mouth. I told myself that I shouldn’t feel bad because I spent a lot of time each day playing with her. I just really didn’t want to go into the bounce house right now. There were a gazillion kids in there right now and the noise was deafening. I was tired. Oh and I had deadlines that I was behind on. I rationalized that I was actually teaching her a good work ethic by having her see me finish up writing my article.

Then I saw her face and remembered that last time we came to Jumping Beans it was me who had the sad face. A few months before, my son and I were have a great time having races down the inflatable slides and playing hide and seek. Laurel had come up to me and whispered in my ear "Can you please go sit at the tables and be like the other mommies?" Ouch. It had been the first time that I have seen the "you’re embarrassing me" look in her eyes and I knew that I would see it many more times over the coming years. I held back the tears as I climbed out of the bounce house, but the feeling of sadness stayed with me throughout the day.

But now my almost eight-year-old had apparently decided that I was cool again. I shut my lap tap, took a deep breath and headed into the bounce house because I know that my days of being invited in are numbered. But next time, I will remember to bring earplugs.

Jennifer appears Mondays on TriangleMom2Mom.