Play dates are a manipulation of life,
not living life.
Play dates make me nuts. In my day (yes, the days when we wrote on rocks), you went outside and played. Where I live in New York City, in a kind of private community, we can simply go to Playground 12 and almost always see people we know. If not, my cool son just makes friends as he goes. He is my opposite in that way! The playground down the road from our local public school affords the same possibilities.
Here’s my issue:
My son can be playing with someone and ask me for a play date with them, while they are playing already! This is out of control! I guess he means an indoor date, that is only OK on a rainy day.
Even after a full day of camp, twice we ran into a friend at the bus stop, and they are both asking for a play date with each other but not even acknowledging each other! That’s crazy! They were standing next to each other and looking away, not talking about their day with each other, not communicating with each other in anyway, and yet they want this thing called a play date.
But here’s where we find the brilliant kid. Once a week we did stop in a playground after camp pick-up. Bear in mind my evenings are carefully choreographed so my son gets enough sleep, therefore time is limited. My son’s friend, super intelligent because of this question, asks for a DINNER play date. He knows the answer to the regular play date question is an automatic no, so he uses his noggin and takes it a step further. Him we have to watch out for, he is clearly the smartest of the bunch! Again, they were already playing together, IS THAT NOT A PLAY DATE?????
Disclosure: Today (referring to Thursday) we had a play date. This is where I admit I am sometimes wrong. There is a great friend of my son who has been in and out of town, as have we, so we could only meet if we planned it. The boys played inside (no TV or video stuff, that was a coupe on the adults part, but Nerf guns were involved, coupe on the boys side!), tennis outside, and then playing at an adjacent playground. There were some calls to return to the safety of the home, but we adults knew it was best the boys stay outside as it was a beautiful day. Again, sometimes I am wrong, this would not have worked if we had not planned a play date, but I am only giving in for 10% of the time!
In conclusion, I agree sometimes play dates are required, but not for every friend meeting!
Please add a comment and tell us what you think!
lol, this is funny. i agree, life is just so “contrived” these days, isnt it? very few things just unfold organically. but ehh well, what do you do? just go with the times, i guess! lol
*pardon the lack of caps…. typing with one hand and an infant in the other! LOL*
Even our little ones seem to be planning ahead and scheduling the next thing to come. Hopefully, they want to play outside and not just play video games or be glued to TV. Outside gets them running around as long as the weather holds out, they can brun some energy! Kudos to the “dinner” playdate… what a smarty!