Saturday, 1 February 2020

How do I tactfully tell another mom that we won’t be having any more play dates?


My daughter is 7 and in first grade.Back in preschool (2016/17) she became friends with a classmate who happened to live right by us. We’ll call her Heather. We started doing regular play dates. Sometimes I’d pick the girls up from school, or the other mom would. It was nice for a while, but I always felt that Heather (who was only 4 at the time) had kind of a troublemaker personality. She was really sneaky, would whisper secrets, and would try to get away with stuff she had been told not to do. Once that school year was over I was relieved because the girls would be attending different schools the following year. We went a long time without reconnecting.Lately the other mom has gotten back in touch about getting the girls together. They’ve had 2 play dates so far, both times I dropped my daughter off with them and they’d go out and do fun stuff. Both times I offered to take the girls but the mom seemed to already have plans that she could absorb my daughter into, like going to church then the movies.But I worry about what stuff she’s exposed to when she’s over there. Heather has made fun of her for watching “baby” shows (AKA age appropriate material) because she’s allowed to watch whatever she wants. When my daughter came home last time she told me that they watched the last episode of Stranger Things. I myself love that show, but I’d never let my 7 year old watch it! She told me she was scared so she just distracted herself instead of paying attention to the screen. She also mentioned something about reddit. I was like “How do you know about reddit?!” And she said Heather’s brother (who is 10) was showing them stuff on it. I told her that reddit isn’t really for kids her age and she should not be on it. Not to mention that Heather also has an iPhone so who knows what they’re getting up to.And last but not least, the mom doesn’t use any sort of booster or car seat. When they were in preschool she’d use a backless booster, meanwhile mine was still in a 5 point harness. Now my daughter uses a booster with a high back and the other mom doesn’t use anything. I always provide a booster seat when I know that they might be driving, but I don’t think it gets used. My daughter is only 52 lbs so she under no circumstances should be riding without one.I just...don’t trust this mom. I think she is way too relaxed about what her kids are doing/saying/exposed to. She doesn’t seem to fully understand age appropriate vs. inappropriate. I always got the vibe that since she’s a 40 something divorcee who lives solely off of alimony and constantly posts party photos on Instagram, it’s like she’s trying to raise her little girl up to be a “cool girl” instead of just letting her be an innocent kid.Thankfully we moved, so rather than being right by them we are across town so it’s not as convenient to do drop offs/pick ups. But I’d really like to just cut the cord and end this relationship and I’m not sure how to go about it. For a while (over a year) we didn’t see them and I thought we had all moved on, but since we’ve reconnected I have no idea how to say “Sorry I don’t want my kid hanging around you guys” without sounding like an asshole. If anyone has any insight/experience with this I’d love to hear about it! via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2GOeTRG

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