Last Friday, my 2 daughters had 2 little girls over to play. My 7 year old had been to a playdate at her friend's house, and wanted to invite the friend over to our house and I started thinking, "Why not invite her 4 year old sister, too, to play with my 4 year old?" It worked out really well. The girls got along nicely, I satisfied playdates for 2 kids in 1 swoop, and having a playmate for my younger daughter helped with the typical problem that she wants to tag-along playing with the older girls when they don't want her to. And, supervising 6 kids for a few hours was totally doable!
The only issue of having the "girl playdate" was that my 2 sons immediately began asking about a "boy playdate" and making me feel bad that it has been a while since either of them has had a playdate. So I emailed the mother of my 9 year old son's best friend from school and the mom of my 5 year old son's best friend from school and was able to set up a "boy playdate" for Monday, their last day off school for winter break.
I was a little worried about the "boy playdate", especially knowing my trick for the girls of having some craft time when things got dicey (like someone was bored, running through the house squealing, or not playing very nicely) was not likely to go over well with the boys!
Thankfully Monday brought nicer weather and I realized "outside time" could simply replace "craft time" as a diversion of activities in the middle of the playdate.
I was completely surprised!
Do you know which playdate was easier? The two 7 year old girls plus the two 4 year old girls (along with my 5 and 9 year old boys who were also home) OR the two 9 year old boys plus the two 5 year old boys (along with my 7 and 4 year old girls who were also home)?
The boy playdate was much easier!!!
Not that the girls were bad because they were not, I was just really surprised that 4 boys in the house would be easier than 4 girls!
I really liked the combining playdates and plan to do more of it. It definitely helps cutdown on my usual playdate problem of the younger siblings pestering the older ones when a friend comes over! And now that my younger ones are old enough for drop-off playdates, it is totally a feasible option.
What would you rather have - a houseful of girls or a houseful of boys?
My 2 boys were easy compared to my girl.
ReplyDeleteGirls are used to being "girly" which often
leads to more needs.
Boys are more into "taking care of Mom" so they
want to help. My boys watched their Dad take
care of me.....taking out the trash, getting the
door, opening jars, pumping my gas, washing my car etc.. Yes he is a good man. My boys wanted to be just like him. :)
My daughter thought she too needed "special"
treatment. :) Which worked out for her finding a good man too.