By: Cheryl Mcguires

When I married my husband I thought I was done with dating. I was wrong. I have been on several dates recently. I met the people from all different places such as the library or Internet. Some of the dates were “blind” while others were not. The dates I am talking about are play dates. I am amazed at the similarities between dates and play dates. Here is a comparison:

Dating 1997: I met this date at a party. Due to the dim lighting, I only had a vague memory of what he actually looked like, which only caused me to feel more nervous. Before he arrived, I was pacing back and forth in my apartment. What did he look like? Would we get along? What if he turns out to be some sort of crazy person? I hear a knock at the door. My heart feels like it is going to explode. I take a deep breath. The sweat from my hands makes it difficult to open the door. I slowly pull the door back. I am pleasantly surprised to be greeted by an extremely good looking guy. I feel myself relaxing. We go out to dinner. The conversation flows easily. When the date ends I find myself hoping he will call. I ended up marrying this one, so I guess he considered this a good date as well.

Play Dating 2007: We exchanged phone numbers during the library story time. I was so excited someone was interested in having their child play with my kids. Once I had the phone number, I wasn’t sure what to do. Do I call or wait for her to call first? I didn’t want to seem too anxious. I waited and eventually received a phone call inviting us for a play date at her house.

Before the big date, I was more nervous then a “real” date. Would I get along with the mother? Would my children get along with hers? What if my children do something embarrassing? Unfortunately this fear became a reality.

When we arrive at the house my eyes quickly scan the play area. I see the area is safety proofed but not “Logan and Lindsay proofed”. My twins immediately seek out the weak points. They start pulling on the TV cords like their life depended on it. I unplug the TV which only causes them to move onto to other places. Logan pushes through the feebly assembled safety gate as if he was Godzilla plowing through the high tension wires surrounding Tokyo. The flood gates are open Logan, Lindsay and their play date are running in opposite directions free at last!

I run after Logan first. When I find him he is bathing himself in the toilet water. Even though I am thoroughly repulsed, I quickly clean him up. I then turn the corner only to find Lindsay with a mouthful of cat food. It must have been quite tasty since she is going back for seconds. At this point in the play date I realize we better leave before someone got hurt or I threw up. The mother must have found this whole situation entertaining since she actually called for a second play date.

Fortunately the end goal of play dating is not to obtain a marriage proposal. If that were the case I think I would have ended up a spinster.