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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am dreading this too. Especially since I am an introvert.  I hate making small talk with people I don't really know.   And now it sounds like if I don't do lots of play dates my kid will become a social outcast.[/quote]

There doesn't need to be a lot of small talk, certainly at age 5+ we never had parents stay for playdates.  Some of my kids' friends' parents have become my friends and so we do sometimes stay to visit with each other while the kids are playing but there are also others where it's just a quick drop-off.

I'm also an introvert and really struggled with learning how to interact with other kids and build good friendships.  It didn't help that my mom was also an introvert who'd been pressured by her highly-extroverted mom to be very social so she IMO over-corrected by not doing anything to encourage my social interactions.  I hope I've found a happy midpoint.  I've gotten to a place where I have a good circle of friends and we encouraged our kids to spend time with kids they express an interest in.  For my introverted DD there were several years of playdates with a variety of girls (maybe 1/week when she was in a PT preschool and then 2/mo in early ES) until she settled into two best friends.  The three girls now get together nearly every weekend at one of our houses and parents are only consulted for driving and schedule confirmation.  DS is more social and still prefer to spend time with a variety of kids but by default spends the most time with a boy on our street.  [/quote]

I think I might be just like your mom, who was the introvert who had been pressured by her highly-extroverted mom to be very social.  I may be over-correcting by setting boundaries and ensuring that we have a lot of family "peace and quiet" time, but maybe not encouraging my child's social interactions.  Gulp.  Parenting is so darn HARD!  [/quote]

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