My daughter has just now reached the age (she is 5) when people start asking her on play-dates that don't include me. So far, they've only been with other parents who I know very well and for a long time, but I know there is a time in the not-so-distant future when my daughter will want to play at someone's home and I won't know them. Scary!
This is why stories like this one where a dad accidentally put on his own porn instead of the Smurfs movie he had intended to show at a child's birthday party scare me to death.
If I were the parent of one of the kids at the birthday party, I would be livid, and this is a classic example of how hard it is to trust other people with your kids. This is why I have a plan.
My plan is multifaceted. First, I plan to BE the cool hangout pad. Oh yes, I will have all the Tang and cookies my kids could want. I will provide red paper for Valentine's and plenty of candy and fun. My house will be the place to be for kids after school.
My mom was the queen of this herself and I almost never went over to anyone else's house after school because she was so cool and all my friends wanted to be around MY mom. It's a genius plan, really.
My other plan is to really get to know parents of my kid's friends. This past January first, we invited one of my daughter's friends and her whole family up to my family lake house. We did skiing and snowshoeing and ice skating. At night, we put the kids to bed and we got to know the parents.
Now I consider them somewhat good friends of ours and it was really a very simple thing. The fact is, I want my daughter and son to make many, many good friends. But I also want to know the parents. I am never going to be comfortable sending my child over to a stranger's house. That would just not be me.
So I have to bake a lot of cookies, make my house super appealing, and be prepared to make a lot of new friends.
Do you trust other kids' parents?
Kim and Kanye's Baby Name Predictions!
Moms Love Birthday Parties, Too!
Father Knows Best - Happy Father's Day!
Are Cheaters Entitled to Privacy? - A...
Comments 43
What I did NOT expect, was for a mother with 2 boys, and bbysitting a girl, to drive up, drop off all 3kids, and FUCKING LEAVE!!! Just leave! I've never seen these kids before, never seen the mother. The boys of hers, told her they knew other kids at the party, so she dropped and left. And left a kid that wasn't hers too.
I was stuck feeding supervising and taking care of these kids for3 hrs. I finally sent them back to the boys house *2 blocks away, come to find out* and the mother was home, and never even came to check, introduce, nothing.
If this is what passes for supervision of other ppls kids in me neighborhood, I say no way.
There are way scarier things to worry about than a few seconds of accidental pron...
Is the scary part that the kids saw it, or that he has it on his computer? And what is really going to happen other than some embarassed explaination of what they saw?
I clicked on the article & I don't even understand why that is news. Clearly just an embarrassing mistake for the dad. Sheesh. Society is getting pretty sad these days.
My son is only 1 1/2, so it hasn't really come up yet. But my plan when he's older is to be sure to at least meet the parents of his friends (you know, when I drop him off to play) and then give them the benefit of the doubt. Most parents are decent people, and I plan to treat them as such.
That's the point. Good parents meet, get to know, and hope for the best. Bad parents drop off and expect strangers to care for strange kids.
I don't think any of us expect perfection out of anyone caring for our kids, but we should expect to know the people, be notified of any incidents, and know that our kids are comfortable in this environment.
Wow, that's your idea of a scary event? It was an honest mistake and could have just as easily happened to parents that you know well. If it did, would you cut all ties to the parents for a simple mistake in which no one was even remotely hurt? Judgemental much?
Better watch out; something like this could very easily happen to you one day, and if everyone was as judgemental as you, you'll probably loose a bunch of friends.