The Social Calendar of a Four-Year-Old Is Busy
Between making sure I have childcare when I need to work, meeting my deadlines, getting Lucas to school on time, swimming lessons (next week), and satisfying the visiting needs of 5 grandparents and 2 great-grandparents, I’m finding that Lucas’s social calendar is rather full.
Now, every day when I pick him up from school, I find that he’s already made plans with one or more school friends to have playdates outside of school hours. “Mom, Ria, Jackson, and Ella are going to come to my house and spend the night for two days! OK?” They make plans with each other! They make promises. And the kids don’t really get the subtleties of adult schedules and social niceties. (Like why would I make a play date with a kid who is rough and mean to Lucas? Or why would I want a play date with that kid’s mom? We moms don’t have anything in common.) And it’s not just Lucas who’s begging me to fill his every waking hour with friends and fun. Other kids ask me directly, “Can I come to your house to play?” Little Laural asks every day.
At least we’re not playing organized sports yet. Gods help me.
However, with all that said, we just had a successful and fun playdate with X. He came to our house, and although X and Lucas bickered for a while, they eventually found a peaceful zone in which they built and fixed things (something about a stage) with tools. And together we three managed to put some seeds in the ground. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks we’ll have some handsome pumpkin and flower seedlings growing.
May 26, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Dang, your kid has a more active social life than I do… 🙂