When did kids getting together start being called a "play date"?

I'm in my 40s and don't remember hearing that when I was a kid. When did the term for two (or more) kids getting together start being called a play date?

:shrug:

to just 'get lost until dinner.'

LeftyMom is right in that it's parents initiating and managing the child contact rather than children initiating it, which is the way many of us learned to play and make friends.

but, my daughter usually sets up her own playdates - I just call to verify with the other parents.

Parents have to call other parents to verify play dates now?

Hell, we just ran out the front door and came back for dinner.

I don't remember being able to go further than crossing the street at that age, and being a few years older than that when I could go over to visit a friend that lived a few streets over.

However, I do think it's silly that every parent has to wait at the bus stop with their child when there are 15 kids and 10+ adults there at my daughter's bus stop. When I was a kid, we walked to the corner and there were no adults there at the bus stop.

Or not that I can remember.

But then, I lived in Hawaii and we spent every waking moment at the beach with my parents. :-)

And no parent at the bus stop once I got older either.

It's just the word for whatever it is, now. I used to "go over to someone's house," my daughter has a play date.

I think it is the result of busier schedules and working families and larger circles of friends. My daughter still runs across the street to play with local kids, and some of them drop by to play with her randomly, but most of her friends live outside of walking distance, and their parents work or are otherwise busy, so getting them together takes a bit of scheduling to make sure a parent is going to be able to drop them off, pick them up, and be around in case of emergencies. You can't just "drop them by" anymore, you have to schedule a date a lot of times.

Funny thing is, I'm reading "Sense and Sensibility" right now, and that old formal mentality of not inconveniencing anyone and of scheduling everything as a form of respecting another person's privacy sounds familiar. (I'm not sure when the sea monsters show up--I was told there are sea monsters).

of 24 hour "fear" news on tee vee

A girl here got kidnapped when I was five or so. I remember it because one of my little friends was no longer allowed to play on our daycare lady's front lawn anymore, as her mother was that afraid that roaming kidnappers would snatch her out of a crowd of kids fifteen feet from the front door. Edit: And behind a fence. In a gated community. :eyes:

I don't remember any adults telling her that she was an idiot, and her kid was in more danger in her car on the way over. People were afraid. It was stupid, but they were. Anyhow, that poor girl's nearly 30 now, and I assume she's probably raising neurotic, coddled children who are afraid of their own shadows.

At times I'm glad I had a single parent. Hovering wasn't a luxury he could afford, so we got to have lives. Nobody inspected our candy for razor blades or asked where we were going as long as we stayed on our street, and we came out okay anyhow.

I hate the term play date

for themselves and their babes. Internet, 2+ jobs. 80s

It's all becoming too...perfect. Too specialized. Too organized. Too sterilized. A little too mechanistic. Everything has its own little place, and nothing can fit anywhere else.

1) Became paranoid about letting their children play outside alone, due to exaggerated reporting of child abductions

2) Moved to suburbs where it is impossible to go anywhere outside one's own neighborhood without driving.

3) Started thinking that micromanaging every moment of a child's life is good parenting.

The only time I ever had anything remotely approaching a play date was when my parents took me along on visits to people who had children my age. Then it was, "Go outside and play so the grownups can talk."

and i just turned 30

:D

with his canine friends so the term has been around long enough to morph already. When it started? :shrug: