Why is it so hard to arrange play dates with kindergartners

[otterhere]

Originally Posted by MarisaMay

And even then not everywhere. In my street there were hardly any kids when I was little long ago and even if there were it was a busy road. Same with my own kids.

I was fortunate to have not only a sibling, but about half a dozen kids my age on my block and the next one. We changed into play clothes right after school, then convened - getting up to all kind of adventures -- until we were called to dinner, or conceded that we were being called in to dinner (sometimes we pretended not to hear if we were having too much fun). Same after dinner in the summer until called in for bedtime. And on weekends. Our schedule wasn't booked by our parents from dawn to dusk. Our dogs ran free and joined in the fun, too. None were frustrated or fat because they had the other dogs to socialize with. They all went home "dog-tired" and were happy campers. My older brother had the older siblings of MY friends, and they - being teens - congregated and hung out together.

We didn't "choose" our friends; they were just there, and so we all learned to get along.

LIFE WAS GOOD!

Oh... And our parents weren't constantly filming us or taking pics to show other people.

[NDak15]

Originally Posted by otterhere

I was fortunate to have not only a sibling, but about half a dozen kids my age on my block and the next one. We changed into play clothes right after school, then convened - getting up to all kind of adventures -- until we were called to dinner, or conceded that we were being called in to dinner (sometimes we pretended not to hear if we were having too much fun). Same after dinner in the summer until called in for bedtime. And on weekends. Our schedule wasn't booked by our parents from dawn to dusk. Our dogs ran free and joined in the fun, too. None were frustrated or fat because they had the other dogs to socialize with. They all went home "dog-tired" and were happy campers. My older brother had the older siblings of MY friends, and they - being teens - congregated and hung out together.

We didn't "choose" our friends; they were just there, and so we all learned to get along.

LIFE WAS GOOD!

Oh... And our parents weren't constantly filming us or taking pics to show other people.

That sounds similar to my childhood.

[NDak15]

Originally Posted by GiGi603

I had three sons, the two year plan. We just didn't need anyone else to come play. They got enough interaction at school with other kids.

Were they constantly booked with a activites?

[josmyth]

Originally Posted by NDak15

There are two unfortunate problems with our society that may be at play here.
1. People tend to just hang out with high school friends. If you're not in that group, your kid won't get to play.
2. Parents have their kids overscheduled and may not have time.

My youngest is a HS senior, so it's been a while, but this was our exact experience. I would just replace 'high school friends' with 'existing friends'. It's unfortunate, it's a very different world. I wanted my kids to have tons of free play with neighbors, but that never happened.
My boys had most of their interactions through Boy Scouts.