New to the politics of playdates - help please!

[LapinDeBois]

My son is in Reception and hasn't been back to anyone's house to play yet. He's quite shy and quiet, and TBH I think he's as happy at home playing with me and his brother, so I'm not bothered about it (though he has made one little friend who I'm considering asking back). However, he's just been asked to play after school by one of the boys in his class, who is something of a difficult child. From what I know (which isn't that much), he's fine a lot of the time but can be quite aggressive in certain situations, and apparently some of the others are quite wary of him. His mum is lovely, and I suspect she's doing her best to ensure that her son makes friends and integrates into the class. I've suggested to DS that we might go round to play, and he hasn't exactly said no, but I can tell he's not very keen. I'm really torn - I really want to be nice to the lovely mum and help her son settle in if I can, but at the same time I don't want DS to have a bad experience on his very first playdate. Any advice, please?

[SourMilkGill]

Explain your son would be too nervous to go on his own, that way you can go too and help it run smoothly.

If you have to take a sibling along that is even better as you can say you can only stay for half an hour or so.

[LapinDeBois]

Good point, thanks. I've said yes, and have managed to arrange it for a time when we can only stay for an hour max, so hopefully it'll be ok for that long. What I do if DS refuses to invite the boy back again, I'm not sure...