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What if my child has a major temper tantrum on his first play date? What if my daughter doesn’t want to share her toys? Setting up a play date for your child can seem like a daunting task, especially when your child is young, but there are steps that can be taken to ensure that your child and her friend have a great time!

1) Keep your child’s strengths and weaknesses in mind.  If you know your child gets upset when she loses a game, take the children to a movie or set up an arts and crafts activity so that competitive games are minimized. Everybody wins!

 

2) Make the playdate short and sweet: As you know, young children get cranky after awhile so keep the play dates relatively short.CBD23_BARBIE-Entrepreneur-Doll_XXX.jpg

 

3) Taking Turns:  Since children will inevitably both want to play with the same toy OR have difficulty agreeing on what game to play with, parents can facilitate taking turns and compromise.

Most children have a special toy, a barbie doll or a race car, that they just don’t want anyone to play with. That’s okay! To avoid any conflict over the toy on the playdate, just put it away beforehand so your child will not have anything to worry about.

 

All of this being said, its also important to allow for some learning opportunities so when the inevitable “win/lose” situation presents itself (perhaps the children decide to race!), help your child cope with not always being first or not always winning.

While we, parents, do our best to create positive experiences for our children on play-dates, its also very crucial that they learn in vivo from the not as perfect moments.

 

Playdates should be fun for the kids and stress-free for the parents. These tips will help ensure a good day for everyone!