You may not be thinking about play dates for your infant or toddlers, but playtime is especially important for all children and not just the older ones. What most first time parents don’t recognize (at least not at first) is that playtime for your baby is a time of ‘work’ – they are not just playing. They are learning about the world around them. They are testing new skills. They are practicing old skills. They are interacting with their environment and they are exploring the depths of their own imagination.
When you play with your baby, you are teaching them social skills as well as enhancing the bond you already share. There are many different ways we play with our infants and toddlers. It may be as simple as a game of peek-a-boo, a story or handing them objects for them to bang and talking to them while they do it.
Entertaining Can Be Exhausting
As any parent can attest to, entertaining a baby can be exhausting. They seem inexhaustible and what they can accomplish in just a couple of hours of repetitive play can often wear out their adult caregivers. This is where play dates come in handy, especially for first time parents with no other children at home. Interacting with other babies and toddlers is one of the best ways for your baby to begin learning interpersonal skills.
When my daughter was a baby, she was an only child in an environment where we had no friends with babies or even very young children. Her exposure to other children came only when I actively sought out those types of interactions for her. Whether it was going to the mall play park, the bookstore or waiting for my nephew to come to visit – I had to be very proactive in finding other children for her to interact with.
Other Children Teach Valuable Lessons
We have talked about learning to share here and how we start this very young – but there are many lessons that children learn from their peers. Among these lessons include playing nicely, not hitting and sharing objects as well as the attention of the adults present. In retrospect, I think I should have done more to encourage play time for my daughter with other babies and toddlers – it wasn’t until she was over 2 that I started taking her for play days once or twice a week at a daycare center.
By then, she’d established patterns for being the center of attention. She was so used to all the adults oohing and aahing over her that it was difficult for her to share that attention with another child. By the same token, her initial interactions with other babies were always positive – so she was not shy about playing with the children. Yet – given an option, she chose the adults more than the toddlers.
Play dates are great for teaching your baby and toddler the tricks of interacting with their peers, while at the same time – they give mom a break from having to provide the entertainment. You will enjoy seeing your child’s developing mind as they form attachments and develop the skills to interact with others.
On her very first, official play date, my daughter was just 1 year old – but she enjoyed herself in the crazy play they got into. We kept it to just under an hour. That was more than enough time to wear out both children and still keep the experience positive and upbeat. For first time play dates, it might be wise to keep the play area to somewhere neutral – minimizing disputes over toys, territory and such.
How old was your baby when you took them on their first play date?
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