House Party?

Confession: It's official, my house is the boring house!

I always thought that I'd have the cool, fun, house where all the kids wanted to hang out. I thought that all of my kids friends would gravitate here for parties, play dates, and days off. Turns out, we're not so much the place to be.

I'm not sure if it is because we are 'stricter' with our kids than some of their friends parents (and by strict I guess I mean that we don't give in to our kids every whim)? I never thought I'd be a strict parent by any stretch of the imagination. I still don't consider it so. Just because we have early bedtimes, and we like our kids home for dinner and in the house on school nights, that doesn't make us strict, does it? Maybe it does. Or maybe it's because we don't have a lot of the high tech modern stuff that kids these days like to play with. Whatever it is, our house was officially deemed 'boring' by my 7 year old and her friend this weekend. This is the second play date to deem it so. So, if you are keeping score at home, that is three 7 year olds who think it is boring here. I'm feeling somewhat hurt. Oh sure, they didn't come right out and say that I was boring, but I am the captain of the ship. I'm the play date overlord. I'm the activities director if you will. If playing here is boring, surely it must be because I make it that way. Zzzzz It's a regular snoozefest.

See, I always thought that it would make playdates fun if you got to do things that you don't get to do at home. Or things that you might not do at other friends houses. I think that making popcorn and watching movies is fun. I think that doing art projects like making butterfly mobiles, and painting mugs is a lot of fun. And up until recently my kids did too. Turns out that if you don't have a Wii, an X Box 360, and a cell phone to call other kids from your class on to let them know you are playing, it's not so fun after all.

At first I thought that next time I'd try to liven things up a bit. But how? I mean it's not like I am making them vacuum the carpets and walk the dogs. But, we are certainly not going to give in to the pressure to get our kids things that we don't think they need, just to appease the elementary school set. My kids have always been very accepting and grateful for what they have. They don't (usually) beg for things that they see other kids with. They don't whine at the store that they need this or that toy or gadget or they'll just die. They are very empathetic to the fact that there are kids out there that have nothing to play with- not toys at all. And that some of them don't even have a house to play in. We'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Still, I want my kids to have fun and happy childhoods. I want them to fit in with their friends. I want to have a fun house to visit. Maybe if we keep doing what we are doing, keep teaching what we are teaching, there will come a time when the kids actually ask to play here. Maybe the kids who come here will go home and tell their parents that that they don't want to play Wii today, that they'd rather make cookies and paint pictures?! Maybe not. Then I thought that maybe, just maybe, the kids not wanting to play here is a blessing in disguise. And I always have the vacuuming the furniture and walking the dogs to fall back on.