For so many years I hated the word 'playdate'. I resisted it.

I thought it sounded silly.

Maybe even elitist.

I swore I would never refer to something one of my children did with a friend as a 'playdate'.

Well...today my daughter had a playdate.

It wasn't her first.

But it's the first time I haven't called it "going over a friend's house." Or "getting together with a friend."

See...it's not like when I was growing up.

I used to be able to go down the street and hang out with my friends. I used to go home with a friend, or have a friend come home with me, or walk around the neighborhood together...it wasn't a playdate. We were just playing together, or later in life, hanging out.

The way we've set up my daughter going to school, she doesn't live down the street from classmates. If she's getting together with someone after school, it has to be scheduled. It requires a car ride to someone's house. It requires more than your average coordination.

Like a date. A play date.