Is six too young for playdates?
I wonder, because D has them quite frequently but so often the kids end up mooning around saying "what can we do?" and asking for snacks. Which is what I'd expect my kids to do if they were alone, but not if there was a friend over to play. (Case in point: there is a little girl here right now who has actually been watching the clock since she got here because "3:00 is [her] snack time." )
So either six is too young, or I'm too old, because really? I have some interest in playing games and doing art projects with my own kids, but virtually no interest in doing those things with someone else's kid(s). It's also weird because D's been having playdates since she was about two and of course at that age you stick close by and everything is closely supervised so maybe the kids have gotten used to that set up because now if you're not in there setting up games and making suggestions and freakin' playing with play-doh everyone just ends up wandering around the house making a huge mess.
Or maybe I just expect too much and imagine that if someone is over here to play -- an actual real live friend -- everyone should actually PLAY. I know we did when I was young. Of course, we also spent major amounts of time (at least as I remember it -- my mom may disagree) outside either playing in the yards, riding bikes or swimming. So maybe the kids are playing, or doing what passes for playing these days, but I just don't recognize it. Maybe because instead of playing too, I'm in here blogging.
Tomorrow's burning question... how come we have a lot of playdates at our house, but those same people rarely invite D over to play?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I dunno. Whenever other kids come here, I expect them all to just play (and pretty much always have, even when the kids were younger). I have never been one to be the cruise director...maybe because I never played dolls or that sort of stuff when I was a kid. I wouldn't know the first thing to do with a Barbie. It was more of the cops and robbers/cowboys and indians/tag/hide and seek, sort of stuff, like you said, OUTSIDE. But then, I didn't live in Florida, either. And when we were kids, kids could run around outside, pretty much unsupervised, for hours on end, and nothing bad would happen.
As for the snack thing, that got me wondering. I don't remember eating a lot of snacks as a kid (though I do eat them now). Maybe that's why so many kids these days are heavier. Combine lots of snacks with a lack of running around outside???
Stacey
Post a Comment