Unusual Play Date

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Wednesday - April 07, 2010

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Since both of our kids are fairly grown up, whenever I see a movie or TV show where the parent of one toddler tells the parent of another toddler something like, “Let’s schedule a play date for the children,” I didn’t quite get what they meant by that. Until now, that is.

I guess it’s where the parent arranges a “date” through the parent of another child so the kids can get together to play. Recently I was thrust into a similar situation for our 12-year-old daughter. It’s not what you think.

Our daughter had made arrangements with one of her classmates, a girl, to meet up and go to the recent carnival at Magic Island. Her friend’s mom was going to take them once the girls figured out where they would meet up.

They live in Waikiki, and so my wife asked if I would mind dropping off our daughter at some rendezvous point to be arranged by the girls. I figured since my daughter officially becomes a teenager soon, it wouldn’t hurt for me to spend as much time as I can with her, even if to chauffeur her around.

We jumped in the car and headed to Waikiki. She was already on the phone with her friend and I asked her to find out where we’re supposed to meet. Suddenly, she pressed her phone against my ear and held it there, saying that her friend’s mom was on the phone.

Technically, I wasn’t breaking the law since I was talking on the phone hands-free. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that suddenly I was thrust into a conversation that I wasn’t expecting to have. I instantly found out that neither was the mom on the other end.

It felt kind of like talking on the phone before your first date. I said, “Uh, hello, you wanted to talk to me?” She replied, “No, my daughter said you wanted to speak with me.” I took the initiative, “Where would you like us to meet you?” She said, “I don’t know, what’s good for you?”

My palms were actually getting sweaty. Anyway, we finally figured out where to meet and here’s how we ended the conversation, “Bye, you hang up first.” She said, “No, you hang up first.” OK, that last part really didn’t happen, but that gives you a feel for the conversation.

Next time my daughter’s friend needs to put her dad on the phone.

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