Play Dates

I remember when Carter was "little" and he'd have friends over to play. It was so easy to impress them with pizza and something special like root beer floats (or hot chocolate with marshmallows in the winter). I liked those days.

Flash forward to today.

Carter called from school to say he didn't have baseball so he'd be riding home on the bus. "(Friend X) wants to know if he can come over and stay overnight." Since Carter has basketball practice at 8:30 in the morning, I said no to the sleepover. I said his friend could ride the bus with Carter and come over for awhile, though, and we'd take him home at 8:30 tonight. So that was the plan.

Later, we were only halfway home from work when Carter called again. This time he asked if some other kid who lives a mile away could come over, too. Some other kid I'd not only never met but never even heard of. I said sure, but he could only stay until supper time. I was not prepared to feed a bunch of extras. (Seriously, I wasn't sure what was in the house to feed these boys.)

By the time we get home, there are 3 shirtless teens playing hoops and it's a testosterone festival in the driveway -- conveniently in view of 2 seventh-grade girls outside next door. Ahh, boys!

These "play dates" sure are different. For one, Carter's play mates are taller than me! Two, they don't need me (or want me) to entertain them. They do their best to be in a different area of the house or outside -- which is fine on a nice day like today. They actually went for a bike ride after supper! Boys + exercise = girls, I'm guessing.

They still try to get away with something -- like when they were little. This time, Carter was sure we'd let him watch an R-rated movie just because he has a friend over. No way, kiddo. You just graduated to PG-13! (And no, I don't care what other mothers do.)

I guess I better get used to this new idea of a play date. The one thing I like is that I still have to drive his friends home. That'll change before I know it. And definitely before I'm ready.