My daughters friends or really my Friends with kids?

Her Friends of my Friends with Kids?

I have come to the realization that I pick my child's friends for her.

Does she not go off onto the playground by herself?

Yes.

Does she not form play groups with other kids she never knew before that day?

Yes.

Does she not interact and have fun with new people all the time?

Yes.

So how do I control her friends I hear you ask yourself?

Because she can't drive, so I control the play dates!

I decide who we see on social times, and most often I decide by which parents I wouldn't mind spending 1-2 hours with.  My daughter doesn't care which child she sees, preferably a girl of course but other than that she could care less.

So really I am deciding her 'friends' for her.

I have actually been at a park with my daughter, seen another person there with a similarly aged child and talked to that parent (99% of the time a mom) while our interacted at the park.

Our children were at the park for about 30 minutes, and in that time her son threw rocks at my daughter, yelled at her because he wanted to go down the slide first and the mom said "(insert spoiled boys name here) if you do that one more time we are leaving." four times!

At the end after realizing our houses were pretty close to each other she says "we should have a play-date with the kids some time".  To which I replied: "I'll be honest with you, that's not going to happen."

The truth of the matter is, that I have no problem killing 30 minutes talking small talk with another parent, it doesn't mean that our kids are going to be best friends for life now.

Am I alone here?

Do any of you not choose to do play dates with your child's peers if you find the conversation less than stimulating?  Or do you go in feet first knowing that your child is having fun for an hour while that same hour feels like 3 hours to you?

I have taken a stand, choosing like minded adult friends with kids who stimulate my child, as opposed to like minded kids whose adults don't stimulate me.

Oh, and by the way.

If you're wondering why we haven't done a play date in a while its' because I've been busy.

Really that's it.

Just busy.