neighborhoods

my brother & I were fortunate(as were my parents) when we were kids the neighborhood we grew up in was on a cul-de-sac and almost every house on the street had kids and we were all pretty much in similar age ranges so there was always someone to play with. Unfortunately C does not have that luxury. One girl lives next door & is the same age but she is away for the summer plus her parents seem to be busy people-at least busier than we are so she is frequently not home. We have an older couple right next door who get the occasional visit from their grand kids(a girl & boy), C plays with them, well mostly the boy who is maybe 3 years older but that is it on our street kid-wise the only other kids are jr high to high school older. There is another boy that was in C's kindergarten class that lives sort of behind us but there are fences & it involves dropping off & picking up or staying & being social which quite frankly is ok most of the time but not today..I hate arranging play dates & I hate calling them play dates it makes me feel like "one of those moms" you know the ones that arrange every aspect of their child's life.I wish I could just send him out the door & tell him to listen for the bell to come home-my parents have a dinner bell sort of thing or maybe it was for a boat, I don't know, but when they rang it you had to go one home. One boy ALWAYS thought it was the ice cream man-seriously for years he fell for it you could probably ring it today & that's what he would think it was!