It’s been 3 months since kindergarten started, and so I recently decided I was ready to scale the Mt. Kilimanjaro of child-parent socializing. Yes, it was time to set up a playdate with a parent who was not actually a friend of mine. A blind playdate, if you will. This had all been suggested by my child’s teacher after my 5 year old had a few social problems at the start of the year. “Set up a few playdates with kids from class,” she urged. “It will do wonders.”

Read more »

Dear PSL:
I have a problem with my 14 year old son and have not read anything similar about this on other blogs. My son doesn’t want to be involved in ANYTHING! We have tried sports, dog training, piano lessons, drums in band, church activities, fencing, 4-H — you name it, we’ve tried it. He only wants to stay at home, play video games and be with his dad and me. I’m not really complaining about that, but he’s in high school now, and I’d really like to see him have some friends, go out to the movies, the football games, something! He has friends at school, but they never do anything together socially. I’m worried about him. Is this normal? He just doesn’t seem like a normal teenager to me. He’s very down on himself because he’s a little chubby, but it’s nothing serious. He’s a good looking kid but doesn’t believe that he is.He says he’s hideous. He’s NOT! I just worry about the anti-social behavior. Is it okay for a kid to just want to hang at home all the time??

–Laura B.

Read more »