How to help kids have the opportunity to make friends

[SarahBear]

So the plan had been to send Leo to preschool this year, but it is closed down now and the other preschool in town isn't really an option. My husband is a stay-at-home dad who's not particularly social. I should be able to convince him to take Leo to story time and he may be able to have the occasional play-date with a kid or two, but opportunity to make friends and be social is limited, yet he seems ready to form these sorts of relationships. Any other working parents have concerns about social opportunities? What do you do?

 

[CRWx]

Parks, soft play etc?

 

[jessmke]

Do you have any playgroups in your local area? Park/playground? Pool? Library?

We are in a small town but the community puts on a playgroup two mornings a week, and another town about 30 min away has playgroup options as well. I really enjoy it for the social aspect, but if your husband isn't a very social person he could still take your son to the groups and then just keep to himself. There's usually a big group of parents who hang out at our playgroups, but there's always one or two people who like to keep separate from the big group. I do work full time, but I don't start until 2pm so I take the kids out to some sort of social activity in the mornings.

 

[SarahBear]

There is a library in town that has a story time/playgroup once a week. There isn't really any other group opportunity in town. No soft play. Just a park and beaches and the park isn't great. My husband also doesn't drive and the bus service isn't frequent enough to utilize since he also needs to get our older child to and from school. There are two moms in town with young kids that he gets along well with, but one isn't too reliable and the other also has social anxieties, so not sure how reliable that plan is... but he's trying to set up something relatively consistent with one of them... apparently there is a meeting this evening in the community related to the preschool situation... so it's possible that there will be something, but I just don't know.