Unsupervised play dates

I’m curious where everyone is at with this. As a kid, I socialized with kids at school, in group activities like Girl scouts, and birthday parties, but I didn’t get together, unsupervised, with kids inside their house until 4th grade…. and I was a really mature well-behaved kid. I haven’t decided when I will allow it yet, but I don’t feel comfortable right now. There aren’t a ton of kids in my neighborhood, but there is a kid down the street. He’s perfectly nice and my son and him have shared interests, but he and his mom are FOREVER asking to have my kid over. I need to just be upfront, but I’m surprised they haven’t gotten the hint. I have allowed playing basketball or soccer or swingset outside, where I can see but not indoor playdates. For one, my kid has ADHD, and while he has grown leaps and bounds, I still worry about impulsive behavior. Second, we are really strict about screens. We may be one of the few families without video game systems. I have noticed this kid discuss very mature video games and movies. I should note, my kid does play sports and other extracurricular activities, but they rarely have kids from our zoned school.

I’m not going to change my stance right now and I respect individual parent decisions, but I’m curious if I am in the minority or not.

Posted Mar 5, 2026, 4:47 PM UTC

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