30 Parents Open Up About Playdates That Went So Bad No One Could’ve Predicted It

Raising a child is no easy job. After all, you are responsible for a little person – and not only for their day-to-day well-being, but for them to become a good and well-adjusted person in the long run, too. That means you’re supposed to do everything in your power that’s best for the child's development. 

Depending on the kid's age, the things they need in this area the most depend on some scale. For instance, with newborns, parents should seek to establish emotional security by constantly keeping them nearby, letting them get accustomed to their parents’ voices, swaddling them to save them from any movements that can be harmful, and so on. 

Then, with time, more development responsibilities are added on. Parents have to start teaching their kids to make decisions, to develop and expand their language, and to advance their imagination and creativity, to name a few. 

One of the ways parents can do all of this is by letting their children play and have play buddies. That’s where the phenomenon of “playdates” starts to matter. As the name kind of suggests, a playdate is an informal gathering for kids to socialize, play, and develop friendships. 

Some say that playdates are among the most important things for childhood development, as depriving a kid of playdates can result in them lacking a plethora of skills and having mental health problems in the long run. 

For instance, isolation can have a very negative impact on a kid. Without social interaction, children miss out on important learning experiences that playdates typically provide. Besides the friendship development we already mentioned, playdates also contribute toward kids’ capabilities in conflict resolution and in developing empathy, language skills, and creativity. 

Playdates can take place at a variety of locations, from homes to parks to dedicated indoor areas. It all depends on the parents’ creativity, flexibility, finances, and all things like that.

Yet, even if parents organize it all to a T, it doesn’t guarantee that it will go smoothly. At the end of the day, kids are kids, and they can be rather unpredictable. 

That means that while sometimes a playdate can go like a knife through butter, with kids and parents getting along, having the time of their lives, other times it can turn into a hangout from hell. That’s exactly what today’s list is all about – ways playdates can go very south very quickly. 

All of these stories were shared by parents when they were asked about them on an online forum. And what we can say is that all of the stories are entertaining in their own ways. Do you have any additional ones? We would love to read them in the comments!