Kids allowed to roam all over visiting house ?

No it's fucking rude of your guests to allow their kids to run riot. They are shit parents.

@Wingedharpy no I still wouldn't be OK with it! 🤣

Can I just say in my defence dear Mumsnetters, ALL the children who visited me were staying over.
I never had children dropping in for a flying visit.
I think that makes a difference.

Not quite the same but last year 2 of my relatives who were in their early teens visited. It was a bit boring for them as I am old and quite boring, and their parents were only supposed to be 2 hours tops, but were at least twice that. Also they had forgotten to bring their tablets/phones - so we watched tv and had some snacks etc. But then I saw one was missing and when I went to see where she was, she was upstairs in my bedroom. I didn't say anything to her or to her parents as I see them so seldom, but I didn't like it. She had apparently been in all the bedrooms. I was surprised a 14 year old did this, but maybe it's what they do now.

No it's not normal.

My kids are almost grown up and we had literally hundreds of their friends through the house when they were younger, and I only came across two families who's children behaved like this. It's really inappropriate. One family were lovely and wonderful hosts and just had an utterly different approach, the other parents were utterly overwhelmed and not coping well at all.

I wouldn't let my son do this but the kids were probably bored.

So what if they were? It's ok for kids to be bored sometimes. They can still be told to sit down quietly.

My eldest is almost 5 and I agree with op 🤷‍♀️ I don’t want other peoples children in my bedroom! They can be curious at home lol

No chance; anyone who lets their kids behave like this doesn’t get invited back.

The kids usually end up as horrors, so cut your losses early on.

‘Oh thanks for the invite to pop in, but I’d much rather have an adult catchup in the pub’

Congratulations on your new baby OP.

Welcome to the weird world of parenting other people’s children. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣

You’ll find that there are a few lazy parents who won’t bother to actually parent their children effectively or those who don’t believe in setting rules and boundaries, so I happily do it for them and will firmly tell little Johnny that “no, we don’t do that in this house”. And if they continue to be a pain in the arse, you step up and tell them you’ve had enough and they need to go home now.

Don’t be afraid to set your own boundaries, especially with other family members, who can be the worst for taking the piss. You’re the Mammy now!!

Soft play is a minefield with some parents blatantly ignoring their children to spend time on their phones or chatting to their mates. I will step in and tell another child off if they’re upsetting my kid and if the parent says anything, I’m ready to point out that I wouldn’t have had to intervene if they’ve been actively parenting their child. When they realise that you’ll take no shit, they always back down. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It’s rude . I would tell my kids off.
my friend recently invited kids with older siblings for play date, she said the older kids ran away upstairs and things had been pulled out of bedroom drawers! 😂

I disagree, make sure breakables are out of harm's reach but wander around someone's house? That's a no!

Hear hear. People who centre children's feelings all the time raise horrible kids, plus it says a lot about themselves.

This is what kids are like without adult intervention, certainly. Don't you feel any responsibility to teach them how to behave?

My DB and SIL made a very rare visit to my house with their two DS aged 7 and 9. They didn't turn a hair or say a thing when the boys rampaged up and down the stairs, in and out of rooms, kicking things and breaking an ornament. In fact SIL glared at me as though the breakage was my fault for actually leaving it where her DS could break it. No apologies, nothing mentioned. We were always expected to go to them, they never put themselves out to visit us. I am glad after that. It is like the whole world has to revolve round keeping her little darlings amused.

I wouldn't let my son do this but the kids were probably bored. Babies are pretty boring. I would have brought something for him to do or play with.

It's not normal no, my two are now in primary and secondary school but I've never had any issues taking them out in public or friends homes.

No it’s not normal, I have two dc (7 and 2) and would not let them roam around someone’s house unsupervised. Mainly because it’s just rude!
I would have toys in my bag to keep them happy and expect them to stay in the room with me (unless you also had an older dc for my older dc to play with and then I would let them play together - in the garden, or Childs bedroom if allowed)
I also wouldn’t make the visit last for more than an hour or so, one because you have a baby and probably wouldn’t want visitors longer than that, and two because it wouldn’t be fair on my dc to have to be on best behaviour for too long without a run around outside or something.

to be fair kids are naturally high energy and will want to just run around the house, but it’s our job as parents to teach them manners.

He was on the fucking roof??

My favourite was when my SIL came over to our house. I'm currently pregnant but we hadn't any children then , just two dogs and she picked up my puppy's ball and told her toddler son he could keep it and bring it home. It was like because we hadn't any children yet that any toy was fair game. I promptly explained it was my dogs toy.

Why wouldn't she feel the same?! It's not normal to bring your kids to someone else's home and allow them to run riot, it's actually pig rude.

We invited a friend's son over to play with DS when he was younger . We had bought as a Christmas present a thing where you can do karaoke on the TV with microphones and a guitar. This child broke the thing because he was not being careful. His Mum said - Oh accidents happen . Had it been me I would have offered to replace it. She just laughed and said her son had knocked some tiles off the roof of another families house including a little terracotta thing on the gable and said I just left quickly because I didn't want to pay for it.

I think manners can be taught. & if your child causes damage - offer to pay - the householders will probably say no - but the offer is good .

I would never have allowed my children to behave like that. When they had friends over, always told them they weren't allowed to play in my bedroom.

Your post reminds me of the time many years ago I went to visit some friends with DM. She made tbem an Easter cake and the kids took all the decorations off the cake. The parents laughed it off but DM and I were not impressed. However, those kids are now adults and absolutely lovely people.

Depends on the age(s) of visiting child/ren for me.
I like a relaxed, happy vibe in my house and wouldn't want visiting parents to feel they had to jump up every 5 seconds to wrangle young kids back to their seats.

I do admit though, in order to discourage 1 youngster from heading up to the 3rd floor of my house (I was more concerned about him falling down very steep stairs rather than any damage to any objects), I told him we couldn"'t go up there as it belonged to the man next door and he got very angry if we went up there.
He gave me the look and said "I don't really believe you - but, ok".
Job done.

Just no. They can go to the bathroom if trusted to clean it clean and not to roam around. You bring things to amuse them!

Not in a million years.

Do ask the parents to keep their children in sight - no one should be wandering around your home!

Anyone ignoring their child going in and out of a front door and knocking needs the visit finishing quickly - stand up and smile “It’s been great seeing you - thanks so much for coming. Let’s meet in the park soon”