Play dates are serious business, now that kids are handing out formal business cards to key in their future encounters with new friends.
That’s what mom influencer Vanity Rodriguez discovered after her child came home from school with a playdate business card.
“If you’re an extroverted parent with an extroverted kid, I think that’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Rodriguez, who goes by @_msvanity online.
In her now-viral clip, she said her son received a cute card — which included a classmate’s name, photo, Roblox username and parent contact information — asking him out after school.
“A lot of times when our kids want to play with other kids in the classroom, we don’t have their information,” she added. “I’ll definitely text mom.”
It’s part of a growing trend among parents who are advocating more in-person play dates and creative approaches to exchanging contact information IRL.
Brianna Mullally, a mom and former teacher who owns Missouri-based Partyof4STL, started handing out playdate business cards to help her older son make friends.
“As the mother of an extremely outgoing child who wants to invite everyone, I love play date cards,” Mullally, 34, told The Post. “It’s a lot easier to hand him a card than to write down the information or stand there awkwardly waiting for a phone number.”
The doting mum said she made business cards for her eldest child when they moved to a new city – but then turned it into an online business.
“His speech teacher saw them and thought they were so amazing,” Mullally said. “At that point, I started selling them as printed cards to local craft groups and they were a huge success.”
Lori Rich, another owner who runs Farthest Star Studios and specializes in play date cards, said they are a convenient and “cute” way to connect with other parents.
“I’m able to pack them in my purse and just hand them out when I meet a parent. I’ve always had positive feedback from other adults about how much easier it is to do it this way and how cute they are too,” the Pennsylvania mom told The Post, noting that her daughter also enjoys passed the letters to the prospect. friends
“My daughter thinks it’s really cool that she has her own business card and she likes being able to hand them out herself,” Rich laughed.
The cards are also useful beyond scheduling play dates, Rich said, as they allow kids to stay in touch without relying on cellphones. Plus, kids can exchange video game usernames and parents can give them out as a gift at the end of the school year so kids can contact each other.
“I’ve also asked parents to add the days their child is available to make it even easier to plan play dates,” she said, adding that some cards also include the child’s allergies.
Stephanie Manes, a family and relationship therapist in New York City, encouraged parents to try this parenting hack to take some of the mental load off.
“I think of this not as a calling card, but as a reasonable solution to what can be the complicated logistics of coordinating your child’s activities,” Manes told The Post.
While there may be concerns about the information you reveal on the card, parents should be sure to link everything to their personal contact information.
“I personally use a dedicated family email in ours so it’s not necessarily sharing all our information, which is great for people you’ve maybe just met on the playground,” Mullally added.
And just like any playdate invitation, there’s no guarantee that the invitee’s parents will call to schedule a hangout. Tara Arutunian, a licensed psychotherapist in New York, advised parents to be ready for that difficult conversation.
“There can be the pitfall of being rejected by the invitee, so parents need to be prepared to help their child deal with the disappointment if it doesn’t work out,” Arutunian said.
But regardless, “there are plenty of other fish in the sea to play with!”
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Image Source : nypost.com