1st Family playdate with 6 kids
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Anonymous
| 3 families with 6 adults & 5 kids (6 month old, 11 month old, 1 year old (not walking yet), 3 year old & 4 year old) want to plan something to hang out their 1st families playdate. All 3 daddies are friends, and they want to have fun while 3 mommies (have met 2-3 times) mainly responsible to take care of kids. All 3 daddies are so excited at this idea. It will be a daylight event, and any indoor suggestion in dmv area that can keep kids occupied/entertained for 2-3 hours while mommies would not be overwhelmed/bored or busy to death. What hours would work for these age groups? I am supposed all mommies would bring a stroller or a baby carrier for babies/toddler in case they need a nap. I am the one that have 11 month old & 4 year old, one family has 6 month old & 3 year old, and one family has 1 year old. No one want to host at their house because every house is messy. I have some ideas, like mall (too lame?), indoor playground (difficult to entertain babies & toddler?), museum/aquarium (too packed/overwhelmed?)....any good suggestions? |
Anonymous
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Watkins Park in pg:
http://www.mncppc.org/3204/Watkins-Regional-Park Has playground, farm, nature center, carousel, train... If you’re in moco, reserve a discovery room at the library for an hour: https://montgomerycountymd.libguides.com/ace-babies/discoveryrooms Then go somewhere else nearby for snack time. Nature centers: https://www.nps.gov/rocr/planyourvisit/naturecenter.htm https://www.rockvillemd.gov/380/Croydon-Creek-Nature-Center Excellent guide for where to go with kids in the dmv: https://www.kidfriendlydc.com/ |
Anonymous
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Go to Badlands in Rockville.
It’s a great indoor playground and they just improved their toddler time program. They even have a cafe that sells wine and beer for the grownups. Check it out. |
Anonymous
Here’s the website: https://badlandsplayspace.com/ |
Anonymous
Why don't the daddies just go do something? |
Anonymous
OP here, because they don't want to make this as a 1 time only thing. They want to promote this family playdate down the road, so that our kids can be friends to hang out in the near future (I understand they are young, but we have to start somewhere), mommies get to know each other better (promote friendship, right now mommies really does not know each other well at all), and they can have fun hang out at the same time. They want to do this family playdate a few times every year. And, everyone hang out together, so no wives (not me) can make any complaints. If everything works out, one day we may be able to do weekend getaway trip when kids are older, e.g. to beach, fishing, amusement park etc. |
Anonymous
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OP I would reconsider having it at your house. It's hard at these ages to coordinate schedules with napping etc. Probably will make it less stressful if you aren't all trying to drive too far to a spot where really only the 3 & 4 year olds will have fun.
Anyway, I would aim for about 4 pm to 6 pm for timing. Typically even the toddlers are done with their napping by then. And if the 6 month old still takes a cat nap, that'll be easy to do in the car on the way there or home or whatever. |
Anonymous
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If this is to be a recurring thing, everyone needs to clean their house and rotate hosting. Wrangling little kids at a public place for hours isn’t fun.
Seriously, clean your house people! |
Anonymous
If you wait until your house isn’t messy to have people over then you will never have people over. Any venue outside of a house will be a lot of work. Back when we had little ones, my neighbor and I used to switch off hosting. She’d always say, “come on over, the toilets are clean!”  That was the only thing we worried about. Everyone with little kids has a messy house. It’s okay.
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Anonymous
Yep, this. |
Anonymous
+1 We are 3 families that rotate houses although most often we go to the houses with the nice basements/playrooms. The kids now range between 3 and 9 and have grown up together. They aren't besties but they play together and have a good time, as do the adults. |
Anonymous
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It sounds like a mom is posting this. Here's the deal. Keep it low key. Meet up at a park with swings for babies. Go to a little kids indoor gym that is geared for preschoolers but has a spot for babies to crawl around for open play time. Keep it low key and low pressure. It has to be easy for all of the parents - not just for the dads. The easier it is for the parents who are doing the heavy lifting of parenting, the better.
Our preschool used to meet up at a park on Fridays at 4 or 5 pm. People would bring wine and beer (no glass) and someone would bring pizza and other people would brings chips and salsa, veggie trays, etc. We would stand around chatting while the children played. It was awesome and it was a Friday night so before the weekend rush but no work or school the next day. |
Anonymous
| One of you clean your house and invite the other families over. So much easier that way. |
Anonymous
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Can't you do like Zoo Lights are any of the million family holiday events (Meadowlark, Brookside, etc). that are coming up? Dads can talk sports walking behind the strollers you "mommies" are pushing around and the preschoolers can squeal in delight looking at lights.
Mosaic District and Fairfax Corner are doing tree lighting this weekend (?) with s'mores I think. And Fairfax City will follow suit soon too. Various nature centers (Hidden Pond, Hidden Oaks come to mind) have on-site playgrounds for the little ones and all kinds of weekend programs for the preschoolers. Dads with the preschoolers, moms with little ones. |
Anonymous
| We have done this many times. It started with the dads getting together for drinks once in a while. Kids were all at the same preschool but in different classes. Dads became friends; they still do their dad drinks but we do family get togethers more often. It's really fun! 5 families with 9 kids total. We take turns hosting brunch, but it's a potluck. When some of the kids were younger (dangerous toddler stage) mom or dad would take turns watching their own. Now the kids are all (well, there's still one toddler) able to go off and play while the adults catch up and chat. I think there was no expectation that moms are solely responsible for the kids while dads hang out, though. |