Given my past work with kids, I have occasionally picked up and leafed through parenting magazines, usually hoping for a lead on new children’s books. However, I have read just enough of them to come across the term “play dates” but not to really understand them.
What are they? I assume it’s a scheduled time period for kids to socialize, but…do parents invite the kids over and let them do their own thing, or do they schedule activities like art projects? Do kids usually have play dates with several different kids, or just one? Are they random strangers, or the children of their parents’ friends? What if the kids don’t like each other, do the play dates continue, or is a new playmate set up? Is this something that just upper-class people do, or is it universal?
And why are there such a thing? I don’t know anyone young enough to have ever had a play date. Everyone I’ve talked about their childhood made their own friends, or didn’t, without their parents influences. Are there just less kids around than there were 10, 15 or 20 years ago, or are parents trying to be more controlling of their kids social contacts? (I suppose the answer could be both, actually) Or is it merely an issue of safety, and the ability of parents to closely watch their children at play if they know exactly when their kids will be with which kid, and what sort of conflicts to expect because they’re used to seeing their child interact with the same kid? Like if you know little Johnny tends to kick the other toddlers, you watch out more for that behavior during his visit. Besides socialization, what other benefits do kids or parents get from play dates?