Preschool Pointers - 26: Bring Over a Friend

Problem: Now that the kids are four, do you really need to be right up in their faces while they play? Does everyone need to go to the park together? When do we get to do that whole, hey, come over to my house and play with my kids and leave me out of it? I say now.

Solution: Try it. The other parents aren't going to do it first (trust me, I tried waiting for them). Today we bit the bullet and we have a very nice little girl here. Now, no one is used to it, and my girls are tantruming and not knowing what to do with themselves, but this is a learning process. (Right now they're all watching Bambi for a hot second after a completely failed experiment involving three girls and only two play computers. Yeah, that went over as well as you could expect.) Anyway, after they chill out, I'll feed them lunch, then make them play some more. And we'll do this again next weekend. With a different kid. And then again. And we'll keep doing this until my kids figure out that they can play with friends and not involve me every single second.

Here's hoping.