Now that you have kids, do you socialize with other parents the same way your own parents did?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My parents had their own group of friends (these were not parents of my friends, but I ended up being friends with the kids of those who were around my age), they hosted and went to parties, visits, bbqs etc. with parents of my friends, they were friendly, but not friends.

Same. My parents were 100 times more social than I am today. I only socialize with my kids’ circles out of obligationso they don’t get isolated.

[Anonymous]

We socialize with kids friends parents way more than my parents ever did. Not even close.

[Anonymous]

I've thought about this a lot actually. I think the way in which my parents socialized and the way in which my husband's parents socialized has definitely shaped how my husband and I view socializing now that we are parents. My parents had plenty of friends but they didn't leave us with babysitters that much when I was growing up. They went out occasionally, but not on a regular basis. My parents are 15 years apart and my dad was much more willing to socialize with his friends than neighborhood friends and the the parents of my friends from school. This is likely because he was so much older than the parents of my friends. Also my mother is from England so she didn't have her family around to help her out with us. She was a stay at home mom, so she socialized with friends during the day when we were at school. She played tennis with a group of friends, went for walks with friends, etc. She had quite a cushy life (and still does).

My husband and I both work full time and we have two children. My husband and I have plenty of friends but I really prefer to stay home with my kids when I'm not working. I think my husband would prefer to go out on a regular basis. My husband grew up going staying literally every Friday night at his grandparents house so his parents could have a night to themselves. We never discussed this before getting married or having kids, and I think he expected us to drop our kids off at our parents house all the time on the weekends, since this is how he grew up. When we had kids and our son was like a month old, his mom wanted him to stay the night at their house, and I just could not fathom doing that. I honestly wish we had thought to discuss this before we got married. It's definitely a difference between us and I think its based largely on how we grew up.

[Anonymous]

Sort of, except that my parents were huge extrovert life of the party types, while DH and I are very private introverts. But we do generally the same kinds of things with our community that they did.