Kid Tested, Mother Approved

It's official, my house is not the boring house!

I always thought that I wouldn't have the cool, fun, house where all the kids wanted to hang out. I thought that all of my kids friends wouldn't settle here for parties, play dates, and days off. Turns out, we're so much the place to be.

At first I thought the kids wouldn't like it here because we are 'stricter' with our kids than some of their friends parents (and by strict I guess I mean that we don't give in to our kids every whim)! I never thought I'd be a strict parent by any stretch of the imagination and I still don't consider myself that way, but there has to be some rules. Just because we take our shoes off at the door, have no food in the carpet areas, clean up after ourselves, have early bedtimes, and we like our kids home for dinner and in the house on school nights, that doesn't make us strict, does it? Maybe it does.
Being without a lot of the high tech modern stuff that kids these days like to play with, I can still show my kids and their friends a great time. Whatever it is, our house was officially deemed fun by my daughter and her friend this weekend. Now I am on play date overlord. I'm the activities director if you will. If playing here is fun, surely it must be because I make it that way.

See, I always thought that it would make play dates fun if you got to do things that you don't get to do at home. Or things that you might not do at other friends houses. I think that making popcorn and watching movies is fun. I think that doing art projects like making cookies and painting mugs is a lot of fun, and my kids do too. I don't think I've met a kid yet that turned down scissors, glue, ribbon, and stickers.

Sites I visit frequently:

http://familyfun.go.com/

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/

http://www.parents.com/fun/

The kids who come here have me as a friend as well. They don't come over just to keep my kids occupied while I do laundry. I get involved in their play dates. I have NO problem playing candy land (for the hundredth time), playing hide and seek, dressing barbies, and coloring with them (and trust me they ask me to do so). Turns out that if you don't have a Wii, an X Box 360, and a cell phone to call other kids from your class on to let them know you are playing, it can still be fun.

I was certainly not going to give in to the pressure to get our kids things that we don't think they need, just to please the elementary school set. My kids have always been very grateful for what they have. They don't beg for things that they see other kids with, well not too much. All I want is for my kids to have fun and happy childhood. I want them to fit in with their friends. I want to like playing at home. Maybe if we keep doing what we are doing, keep teaching what we are teaching, the kids will continue to want to play here. Maybe the kids who come here will go home and tell their parents that that they don't want to play Wii today, that they'd rather make cookies and paint pictures?! Maybe not.