What do you think of forcing children, particularly small children, to have play dates with other kids their age in an attempt to get them to become more sociable? Is it a necessary measure to take?

I don't think parents or schools should engineer social behavior.

If there are indications of pathology, the psych professional should work to define and/or address that but just forcing social interaction against a kids innate wishes is likely to cause more harm than good.

Kids develop their social skills with cultural examples, maybe a little training in socially accepted politeness but whether they want to interract with another should be their individual choice.

I don't think it should be forced per se, but definitely encouraged. I don't see how a small child would be adamant about not wanting a playmate though.

I think its a great idea, kids need to interact with one another rather than sitting at home watching TV or playing with their electronic toys.

The matter never really came up with us because most of the kids who lived in this neighborhood would move after only a few months and we only had a couple who stayed and these were the ones we were friends with so we only had a couple of friends the whole time we were kids, and we were not forced on each other, we drove my mom crazy asking if we could go to my girl friend's house to play with her. But I do think if the kid doesn't want to play, leave them be, because I have been there, we would have parties for other people's kids here when I was little, and I didn't know who any of these kids were, or why they were in MY house all of a sudden, I did not want to be around any of them, I just stayed by myself and worked on my Bambi puzzle.

Yeah, they need to be around other kids. But if at said play date, they want to be off on their own, I wouldn't push it too much for them to play in the group.

Chris wrote:

What do you think of forcing children, particularly small children, to have play dates with other kids their age in an attempt to get them to become more sociable? Is it a necessary measure to take?

Is your son getting invitations you'd rather not accept?

Meh. That sounds too heavy handed, it should be maybe encouraged and enthused about, but not FORCED.