Play Dates

Yesterday it was my son’s 7th birthday party. He had four friends over (and one younger sibling) and they had a blast. They tore through our house and garden like a whirlwind of giggles, shouts and squeals. My boy had looked forward to it for weeks and it was probably the most fun he’d had all summer. What’s more, it was less work for us. Looking after one hyperactive 7-year-old is harder than looking after 5 of them. At a time when parents are doing more parenting than ever, why aren’t we taking advantage of play dates more? What they took from us To hear tell of our parents’ and grandparents’ childhoods, this was the norm. Every night after school. Every day during the holidays. Children everywhere, self-policing and self-entertaining. The data bears that out, and what would once have been classed as “intensive” parenting is the new “neglectful” parenting. We offered ‘drop-off and pick-up’ and only one of the parents took us up on it - the rest stayed for the duration of the party.…