Friday, June 19, 2009

What do you think?

I have kind of had this idea in my head about my kids playing with other kids, but after talking it over with Joey, I'm not so sure.  So I want to know what you think.  I'm going to try to pose the question without giving away my position on the matter because I really just want to know what other people do.  When your kids want to play with other kids do you invite them over to your house or do your kids ask to go play at their friends house?  Give me your opinion and I will post mine at a later date and if you have influenced me at all to change my opinion :)  Thanks so much!

10 comments:

Cameron and Nonie said...

If my kids want to play with a friend, we invite them to our house. If I'm too busy or not in the mood we usually don't have them over. However, I have a few friends that I feel comfortable with calling and saying "Hey, I got to do (fill in blank) but Hannah wants to play. Would it be okay if she came over for a little while?" You get the picture. I try to keep playdates at friend's houses to about 2 hours so it's not forever. Hope that helps. :)

Naoni said...

I'm both and that more has been dictitated by my neighbors. I have one that prefers a call before having kids over but she loves having kids over just not un announced and then another neighbor that the kids just show up on the door step. Sometimes that isn't so great. However, if chores are don't there is no playing. With kids/moms I don't know as well, we call and invite them over because I'm not going to just invite my child over to their house --but my kids totally don't get that. hopes this helps i want to see your response!

Lara Neves said...

I usually call and invite them over, but for the most part we don't do a lot of playdates. It's the fault of our busy schedules, mainly, and Bria and Chloe are best friends and don't usually care if they play with other friends too much. I don't ever mind if one of their friends comes and knocks on our door and asks to play (except that one girl down the street who also called my cell phone 50 times a day). If my kids can't play, I tell them, and if they can, I invite them in or let my kids go play at their house, if that's okay with the other mom.
But even though I don't mind too much, I feel like other people don't want my kids knocking on doors so I don't let them do that. Double standard, I suppose, but part of it is a control issue of wanting to know where my kids are at all times.

rachaeljanae said...

Lately we've just been having kids over when we do it (which means that we don't do it as often anymore). I've been getting really fed up with hearing about how they played the Wii, watched a movie and gorged themselves on gogurts, chips and juice boxes when they were over at friends'. Usually when we have friends over, they are entertained enough that I actually have time to get things done while they are over. So that's where we are at.

Rae said...

We invite them here. At least for that first time.

Anna said...

We discussed it a little bit. It's both. I would really like Abby to be able to have a friend that we were comfortable with her just going and knocking on their doors to play here or there or outside, whatever. If they can't thats fine she can come home. But there is no one really in walking distance for her. I'm not comfortable calling and asking if she can go somewhere, we need to call and invite people over more often. But sometimes she just wants to go somewhere else, and frankly there are moments I could use a few less kids instead of a few more, lol. I also need to know where se is, she cant just wander between friends houses.

Audrey said...

Ok, this is kind of hard for me to answer, it really depends a lot on who the friends are. Most of the time, the moms of my kids' friends have been a good friend of mine as well and we would just alternate back and forth between each others houses for play dates with mom coming along to visit too, with a couple of my best friends that was even a weekly thing. I think my situation is kind of unique as my kids have gotten older though. Because I home school my kids don't really have friends who I don't know and who's moms I don't know either.

When we lived in Springville our kids and the upstairs neighbor kids would go back and forth between the two houses all the time, but that's kind of different because it was so close still.

My daughter did go to kindergarten before we started home schooling and she made friends whose parents I didn't know (I helped a lot in her classroom so I did know the kids) and would ask to go play with them. I wouldn't usually let her go on play dates to their houses unless their mom would call and talk to me (but 13 of the girls in her class did show up at our house for her 6th birthday party!)

Tiffany said...

My kids usually ask to have a friend over and they come to our house. I think whoever's idea it is to play or whoever called, they should have it at their house. I don't feel comfortable with my kids calling and asking if they can go over and play. My kids know not to do that. But they have a few friends, one in particular(I dont think her mom knows that she knows our number and asks to come over all the time)that does that. I just say, "no, you can't come over here, but would you like Kami to go to your house and play?" That's just my take on playdates. =)

Jason and Andrea Wilcock said...

We usually have kids at our house. I have too many fears...so unless I completely trust the family, I feel more comfortable having friends at our house. I try to organize play dates a couple times a week and sometimes, I get a group together to play at the park or go on an "outing." I like more organized play dates. It is nice though to have my sister live in the same neighborhood and we trade so that I have a little time to accomplish things around the house or have one-on-one with Addison.

I'm interested to hear your opinion and what you do. :-)

Andrea said...

For us it depends on who Zoie wants to play with. The little girl across the street started out with phone calls (either me to her grandma or vice versa). Pretty much whoever did the calling had the kids come to their house (unless it was for a favor when one of us had to run an errand or something). But, now that we know the family and little girl a lot better, we're both comfortable letting the kids walk across the street and knock and ask. But, for most other kids, it's a phone call to invite them here. I only really feel comfortable letting Zoie walk directly across the street or right next door.