Playdates are serious business, now that children are passing out formal business cards to lock of their future hangouts with recent pals.
That’s exactly what mom influencer Vanity Rodriguez discovered after her child got here home from school with a “playdate” business card.
“Should you’re an extroverted parent with an extroverted child, I feel that is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Rodriguez, who goes by @_msvanity online, gushed.
In her now-viral clip, she explained that her son received a snazzy card stock — which included the classmate’s name, photo, Roblox user name and the parent’s contact information — inviting him to hang around after school.
“Plenty of times when our children need to play with other kids at school we don’t have their information,” she added. “I’m definitely going to text the mom.”
It’s a part of a growing trend amongst parents who’re advocating for more in-person playdates and inventive approaches for exchanging contact information IRL.
Brianna Mullally, a mother and former teacher who owns Missouri-based Partyof4STL, began handing out the “playdate” business cards to assist her eldest son make friends.
“Because the mom of an especially outgoing kid who desires to invite everyone over, I really like the playdate cards,” Mullally, 34, told The Post. “It’s so much easier to have him hand a card out than write information down or awkwardly stand there waiting for a phone number.”
The doting mom said she made playdate business cards for her oldest child once they moved to a recent town — but then turned it into a web-based business.
“His speech teacher saw them and thought they were so great,” Mullally said. “At that time, I began selling them as actual printed cards in local craft groups, and so they were an enormous hit.”
Lori Wealthy, one other mompreneur who runs Farthest Star Studios and makes a speciality of playdate cards, said they’re a convenient and “cute” technique to connect with other parents.
“I’m in a position to pack them in my bag and just hand them out once I meet a parent. I’m at all times met with positive feedback from the opposite adults about how much easier it’s to do it this manner and the way cute they’re as well,” the Pennsylvania-based mom told The Post, noting her daughter also enjoys passing the cards out to potential friends.
“My daughter thinks it is vitally cool that she has her own business card and loves with the ability to hand them out herself,” Wealthy chuckled.
The cards also turn out to be useful beyond scheduling playdates, Wealthy said, since they permit children to remain in contact without counting on a mobile phone. Plus, kids get to exchange video game usernames and fogeys can hand them out as an end-of-the-school-year gift so kids can contact one another over the vacations.
“I actually have also had parents add the times that their child is accessible to make planning playdates even easier,” she said, adding that some cards even include the kid’s allergies.
Stephanie Manes (LCSW), a Recent York City family and relationship therapist, encouraged parents to get on board with this parenting hack to chop out a number of the mental load.
“I feel of this not as a business card but as a wise solution for what could be complicated logistics of coordinating your child’s activities,” Manes told The Post.
While there might be concerns concerning the information you unveil on the cardboard, parents should you should definitely link all the things back to their personal contact info.
“I personally use a dedicated ‘family’ email on ours so it’s not necessarily handing out all of our information, which is great for people you perhaps have only just met on the playground,” Mullally added.
And just like all playdate invite, there’s no guarantee the invitee’s parents will call to schedule a hangout. Recent York-licensed psychotherapist Tara Arutunian advised parents to be ready for that tough conversation.
“There might be the pitfall of rejection from the invitee, so parents needs to be prepared to assist their child address disappointment if it doesn’t work out,” suggests Tara Arutunian, a Recent York licensed psychotherapist.
But regardless, “there are many other fish in the ocean to play with!”
