Kids, coffee ... but any scandal?

Desperate Housewives - delicious secrets, tawdry affairs, suburban beauties and white picket fences.
As intriguing as it sounds, is this really what life is like being an at-home mother?
Tinsel town's Emmy nominated television hit Desperate Housewives hits our TV screens tonight, so the Bay of Plenty Times decided to explore our own Western Bay world of housewives.
Taking to residents of Tauranga's manicured lawn suburbia, it seemed ridiculous to ask if there was such a thing as "happily ever after" - the basis of the popular series.
The show - about five glamorous middle-aged women living lives of quiet desperation - explores the idea that nothing is ever as it seems beyond the perfect front doors on the fictitious Wisteria Lane.
Those we spoke to commented on some major similarities to their own lives - aside from the scandal, of course.
The women - both in Desperate Housewives' fantasy and the Bay reality - turn to each other for support through their daily lives when calamities occur, celebrations are enjoyed, or even if little Susie just won't sleep.
From the footpath at Donna Davidson's Bethlehem home, the box hedge is taking shape and the lawns are expertly manicured.
Stepping inside the oversized copper door, the warm hues of beige are comforting.
Ms Davidson's lifestyle seems idyllic from the end of her Beaumaris Boulevard driveway - and even as you sit at her timber dining suite chatting about coffees, kids and gardening.
But the Bethlehem woman was widowed five years ago when her husband was killed in a car accident.
Since then she has sold the family business - New Zealand Wheelbarrows - and lives off investments and her husband's life insurance.
"If I could have been a `lucky' widow, I was one of those," she said wistfully.
Ms Davidson has a coffee date every day with friends but her day generally revolves around her three youngsters, aged 11, eight and six.
"Really, my life is filled with my children, entertaining them and being a mum."
Children are good at bringing women together, whether it's soccer car-pooling, babysitting favours or remedies on how to get rid of a toddler's cough. And there's plenty of coffee too.
Nearby at Bethlehem's Mayfield subdivision, Lana Janissen treasures her lifestyle caring for her three children and husband Nick.
In a frantic household, Mrs Janissen is a sort of social director within the street and last week held a disco which 28 children from the street attended in her garage.
"There is not a lot of time for me," she said while dishing out instructions to her children.
Once a fortnight a crew of women in the suburb get together for coffee. This is a time where she and other mothers share "horror stories" from recent days.
"We are all dealing with the same things, we've all got kids waking in the night. We're exactly like they are on the show," she pauses, "well, not really."
Down the road Michelle Gahan is entertaining her 18-month-old son, Caleb Harris.
Ms Gahan is not married to Caleb's father, though she says they might as well be after more than five years together with a beautiful home in a suburban Bethlehem paradise.
She is now in her last semester of study for an accounting degree - funded by an uncle following a swiftly accepted bet which sees him pay for her to study full-time.
"We don't have any money stress which makes life a lot simpler. And it helps to have good babysitters," she said.
Mother-of-three Moira Chuter lives in an intriguing solar-designed home in Otumoetai.
"Every room is a hexagon," she says, gesturing around her redecorated home of six years.
After 11 years married to TrustPower's Mike Chuter, she said being an at-home-mum is hectic in the mornings - but ultimately enjoyable.
Brookfield's Julie Frieswyk is the mother of two energetic boys, aged seven and five.
Her lifestyle revolves around children and the wholesale women's fashion business which she and her husband Graeme run.
"It is one of those lifestyles where you have got the phone going all the time and a toddler asking for things," she said. "Our street is one of those where the children come and go through the house."
Mrs Frieswyk's escape is to meet friends once or twice a week for coffee - and to compare how the week has panned out.
"Getting glammed up and going out is always good for a desperate housewife," she laughed.