Play dates when parents work

[hooplahoop]

My DD is about to go into Year 3, still struggling with some social stuff and I have read lots on here about organising play dates to help.

Trouble is my dh works full time and I work part time. The 2 days I do get to pick her up from school she attends cubs and a sports class. Is there a solution I'm missing?

Thanks for your help

Weekend and holiday play dates! We have similar issues and the only way we have managed to work it is to make friends with other parents so that our DD gets invited to their house with enough advance notice that we can let after school club know (no bouncing out of school and asking if X can come home for tea for us) and then we have children over on a Saturday or Sunday morning. To be honest it makes our weekends harder but it is so important to encourage friend making that we go with it.

During the holidays we offer to have DD's friends for the morning or afternoon when we can and again this is reciprocated and makes you popular amoungest some of the mums!

I hope this helps.

We both work full time and do as Jammie said- although we only really do so in the holidays! ( the weekends are too short as it is!)

It does work well though, as in the holidays you can have friends over for longer, so the dcs get a good long time to play. You have to be a bit organised and book them up early, as many people are away, but it does help to keep away holiday boredom and is cheaper than days out!

She can miss the odd cubs or sports lesson can't she?

I agree, weekends, long planned ahead and I normally try to do 1 or 3 kids at once.

Holidays don't work as I work and Dd attends holiday clubs. The days I am off I try to spend time with her and we try to use it to catch up with non-school friends.

I found that parents often agree to letting their kids come on a weekend more time for chores or doing things with siblings.

to be honest even though I don't work after school play dates aren't very easy to arrange anyway, either the other child's parents are working so they have after school club etc or they to grandparents houses further away or my children/the other children have dancing or other activities or the kids are starving and in filthy mood because something went wrong or they fell out at school so i think weekends, planned in advance are better. By Yr3 though I am assuming they aren't QUITE as hard work as R or Yr1 playdates where one child might miss mummy or need constant entertainment because that is what they are used to at home.

I try to use holidays as crash and do very little time and for me to spend quality time with them on my own so we don't do many playdates and minimal meeting up sessions then.

don't rule out arranging something after a club either with one of the children she sees there perhaps as well. If the weather is good even just saying 'meet at the park round the corner for half an hour before/after the activity' can be good.

Can you tie anything in with friends at her cubs or sports club? Share lifts and have a bit of a play afterwards. Or skip cubs one day and see if you can arrange the return date to be on one of her childcare days.

Also inset days.

yup - weekends, holidays. Plus those days when you have to take annual leave to wait in for a plumber or something - I always use those days to host playdates. Strike and inset days.

All of the above.
And the parents who don't work reciprocate by collecting him from school some days for a play date. I then pick him up from their house, before collecting DS2 from nursery.

I also occasionally (I've got flexi time), block out from 3.30 at work, and someone gets dropped off at 4pm.

I've got a random day off on Fri, and have had my arm snapped off for one friend to be dropped of on Mum's way to work. I'll drop him at Grans, where his little brother will be, after lunch.

Are cubs and sports club straight after school?
Can you have a child round, and drop them off as you go to the club in the evening (I'm thinking cubs is 5.30 start or something?)

Thanks everyone very helpful :) think a play before cubs may be the way forward.