Sam gets home from school around 4 in the afternoon, at which time we usually do about thirty minutes of homework, depending on the day. Most of the other kids on the street seem to be home around 3 or 3:30, and they’re usually playing almost immediately. Gabe, of course, is always ready to play.
Today, a nice and sunny day, Gabe saw one girl riding her bike and called to her before I could say anything. He invited her to play with him in the backyard, as she’d done many other occasions when Sam was home. In theory, I’m fine with her playing with Gabe, and she was happy to do so, too. Now there are two other big kids back there playing with him.
When Sam gets home, he will have homework. Knowing these kids are already in his backyard will make him very sad and anxious.
Loading ...This sucks. 
EDIT: And then, to complicate things, fifteen minutes after Sam was out there, the whole gang of big kids decided to move the party elsewhere, abruptly leaving Gabe (whom I don’t want roaming the neighborhood) behind. So much for him feeling included. 
I’m doing this race as my first 50K/ultra in July 2012. I’m so tardy to the party but...
To be honest, I might set a bad precedent and let the homework wait this once so he could play for a while. But, right now, my oldest is in Kindergarten, so I maybe comparing apples of homework to a whole bushel of oranges of homework that has to get done.
Well, he whipped through the homework very quickly today, eager to get outside. I’m concerned that doing that on a regular basis wouldn’t be a good thing.
They are individual kids and as they grow they will have their own friends and interests. Letting them untie themselves from each other now can’t be a bad thing. You can’t make one suffer for the other; that isn’t really fair to either of them.