Hellobee Boards

Do you have friends with kids? That is who most of LO's friends were before he started school.

School, mostly. Plus friends of mine with kids. I have learned it is more important for me to like the parents!

I have an only, it's one of those situations where I am always feeling bad about not doing enough, but my son doesn't seem to care.

I don't think this is really an "only kid" issue, as siblings need friends too

We live in a neighborhood chock full of kids, some of which LO will go to school with. So, assuming they all and we stay there, she'll have those friends. Then there are friends at school. LO is almost 4 and has begun asking for play dates with friends from school, or asking me if a certain friend can come over. So, I think it will naturally happen in the same ways it does for kids with siblings.

My husband was an only and has never had a shortage or friends!

I've found that extra classes like our swim class and kid sports classes at the YMCA yield people with more interest in play dates than school has.

Some of our friends have kids around the same age as our LO, but mostly their kids are a bit older. I've met a few neighborhood moms through a storytime and now we meet up at the playground or at each others houses occasionally. It was much more before I went back to work FT, but I reason that now at least he gets lots of social interaction at day care.

@wrkbrk: he's 5.

Mostly daycare, but I'd also say that going to the playground every day also helps. LO meets so many kids that way.

@wrkbrk: One thing I've realized with my DD (she's 2.5 now) is that with daycare, she has a lot of peer interaction and friend time during the week even though it's not a "play date" and I'm not there for any of it. So during this stage when she's so young, I don't really stress if she's pretty much just hanging out with us on the weekends.