Thank you. One of the new concepts that drove me nuts as a young parent was this new phenomenon, "the play date." When I first heard parents referring to it, I thought it was a joke. I can see if you have three or four-year olds, you may have to arrange play times, but I continue to see parents of fifth graders discussing play dates. I think in many cases the parents have a need to control and manipulate. I'm the opposite, my kids control and manipulate me, like it should be.

Anyway, I'll expand upon this rant. In our area we have one particular development where the moms, dads and kids are always smiling, well dressed and squeaky clean. The moms dominate the school PTA and coordinate activities around the schedules and interests of their kids. When I was president of the local Little League baseball and softball association and served on its board, these parents without fail would approach me en masse and tell me that certain kids had to be on certain teams. One dad, who was selected to be a coach, was brazen enough to come to the player draft with a list of 12 boys that he decided would be on his team.