Play dates

Today when Gage and I were walking home from school (and it was quite cold by the way!) he told me that he gave another kid in his class his phone number. He told me the name of the kid and said if I get a strange call from someone, it would probably be from his mom. Soon after we got home, the phone rang and that's who it was. I was a little surprised they actually called. I really don't know many of the kids' Moms in Gage's class. It's a little harder meeting mom's now that he's in school and not in Preschool. At preschool we went in and stood outside the classroom waiting for class to get out, and in that time, I met alot of different mothers. A lot of whom are my good friends now. At the public school, there are still alot of people standing around waiting for their kids, but now there are 700 different kids in at least 25 different classes exiting the building and I am not typically the type to just strike up conversations with people I don't know. Anyway, Gage's friend wants him to come over for a play date. His mother seemed very nice on the phone and mentioned that she too didn't know many of the other mothers. She also voiced concern about kids going to people's houses that you don't know. So, she had the same feelings I did, and was very easy to talk to. She said that if I wanted to stay too, she understood. I told her that Gage would love to come and play and that I would bring him and stay for just awhile so I could get to know them a little more. I was thinking about Gage's birthday this past fall and I was shocked at how many of the kids that were able to come of families that had no idea who we were. This classmate was in a private school here in Bismarck last year and his mother works at one of the hospitals. I know that is no way to determine whether this is a nice family or not, but I trust Gage's judgement. He's very observant at school and he typically doesn't like to hang out with the kids who are misbehaving. He says this boy is a good kid and he likes to be funny "but only when it's appropriate Mom." :-) We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Do any of you have suggestions on what you would do in this situation? I did have a similar thing happen this past summer, and I had a mother asking me if Gage could come and play. I had said yes, and this too, was someone I didn't really know, although I would see her alot at different activities that Gage was involved in. I had no idea where she lived, and after we left hockey, I panicked and backed out. I'm going to try again and see how it goes.