The other day, I finally hosted my first playdate at my house. That is, I actually had my own friends and their kids over. Despite having an almost three year old, and despite having a fair number of parent friends, I’ve never actually felt comfortable enough to have anyone over.
So finally, I did.
I was honestly so anxious about it. First of all, I always think that my friends must all secretly hate me. Do all people have that fear? Leading up to the invitation (which was really just a text message that said, “you and your boys are welcome to come over”), I was seriously wrought with anxiety. My internal monologue was something along the lines of, “She’s going to read my text and roll her eyes. She’s going to make up an excuse. She doesn’t even need an excuse, I bet she’s already got something better planned.” But, I invited my friend and her kids over anyway.
If I had been in another mood, or if I had planned this playdate out in advance, I’m sure I would have spent a great deal of time researching how to host a great playdate. I imagine the blog posts or Pinterest pins that would suggest that a proper playdate host should send out invitations at least 3 days in advance, or make sure to provide a wide variety of allergen-free snacks, or to have a carefully curated playdate theme. But I didn’t.
I didn’t even dust.
And when my friend came to the door and her kids came on in, Monkey eagerly showed the boys all her toys and the three of them spent the next hour chasing each other up and down the hall, giggling and screaming. There weer a few squabbles about taking turns with the ride-on toy, but otherwise, it went off without a hitch!
I can’t wait to do it again. And my Monkey can’t stop talking about how much fun it was when her friends came over.
Confessions of a B-Minus Mom 