Welcome to Playdate.com and thanks for checking us out. We are based in Los Angeles, CA and our pages are written and edited by parents, medical/mental health professionals, a few computer geeks, and a smattering of people with random thoughts. Though there are many people here who have impressive degrees and titles, we’re all pretty kick-back and informal. We hold the philosophy that you have to earn your respect and not simply use your degrees or titles as a get-out-of-jail free card. Our staff’s dedication, sense of humor, humbleness and unrelenting desire to continuously learn and improve is what makes the environment at Playdate.com such a fun place to work.

At Playdate.com we believe that everyone has something to contribute and nothing can replace experience. You have to try something out for yourself to be able to talk about it passionately. What works for one person might not work for another but at least you can provide a map of where you’ve been. That way people can chart their own adventure and add the pieces that are missing. So our goal is to provide you with an open forum where people can share their perspectives and life maps. A little bit of the Karma angle (after all, we ARE based in California!) to our approach — the more you share with others, the more others share with you, which in turn helps everyone grow. We try to live by this philosophy and don’t mind jump-starting the cycle. We believe that you’re never too young or too old to share, learn, and create.

Playdate.com is the brainchild of a former Navy Psychologist, Isaac Schefres, who before settling down in Los Angeles had to move often due to military deployments. He discovered that the family’s biggest stress was that of being in a new city without friends or a social network. Just knowing where the best parks were, camps, sports programs, etc. made a world of a difference.  By the time they made friends and connections it was time to leave. The silver lining – adversity breeds creativity as the evolution of playdate.com began.

Nowadays it is not only military families who experience frequent relocations.  Many people move for work opportunities and land in new towns and cities with no network of family or friends.  Having immediate access to information about a new area – good tutors, parks worth visiting, free concerts, and basic information about where to enroll your child(ren) in dance or music classes is invaluable. PlayDate.com was initially created to fill that gap and has since evolved into a resource and information site for parents and children based on the requests of our users. Our goal is to help families connect and exchange information. If the information makes sense to you then use and if not, then please add to it. Have any ideas or suggestions? Email us – we’d love to hear them!