We can take turns, can’t we?

Yesterday, Rosemary had her first play date. Well, it was the first time she had a friend round to play, rather than a cousin or a younger child of one of my friends. N goes to the same playgroup and lives round the corner, and they’ve got on extremely well ever since they first walked up the hill together. N and her one-year-old sister and mum came to Rosemary’s birthday last week (the only other child there was Rosemary’s cousin, due to my being very disorganised), but yesterday was a proper play date (I think, unless I have the definition wrong!), where N came round to play on her own.

They played very well together. I was able to get the dishwasher filled, a load of washing on and caught up on the recycling. I even managed to sit on the stoop and catch up on my Google Reader items, while they played in the new sandpit. There were a couple of incidents, where they were both going for the same thing – for example, I was reading a book to them and dropped it and they were both trying to be so helpful that they bumped heads and both cried about the other one picking up the book; my solution was to drop another book for Rosemary to pick. But, for the most part they were very nice to each other, and I heard lots of ‘We can share, can’t we?’ and ‘You can use the rolling pin now and then I can use it when you’ve finished.’ and ‘I’ll play with this baby, and you can play with this one or this one, if you like’ and ‘We’re best friends, aren’t we?’ N was very polite, asking me (“Rosemary’s Mummy”) if it was OK to play with things before getting them out and was fine if I said we couldn’t get something out.

They did a fair bit of imaginative play together – babies, doctors, picnics, going to the beach, shops – and they played in the sandpit, played with the playdough, did some sticking and had some stories. There was pretty much no floor visible by the time N’s mum arrived to pick her up, but it was worth it to witness such lovely co-operative play. N didn’t want to go home when her mum turned up, and Rosemary didn’t want her to go. They both started to get a bit grumpy, then, arguing over some stickers and a few other little things – but clearly because they were disappointed and a bit tired by then. Rosemary will be going round to N’s house on Thursday.

All in all, it was very successful and did only take me about 15 minutes to tidy up the living room after Rosemary had gone to bed. I hope there are many more play dates to come – with N and with other children from playgroup. (As an added bonus, N’s mum is very nice, too, and I think she may be my first playgroup/school mum friend. So it is possible, after all. Though it was actually Chris who got her phone number for me.)

Do you enjoy having your children’s friends round to play, or is it a nuisance? Do they have local friends you can call at the last minute to suggest a play date, or is it all organised months in advance? Do you have any tips for continued play date success?