What's your worst playdate experience?

My worst was when two of the invited friends didn’t show up … it seemed really odd that they both cancelled at very short notice. It transpired that the Mummy of the friend who did turn up had been having an affair with the Daddy of one of the no show Mummy’s. Mummy number two was staying away in solidarity … I had no clue about any of it u tip afterwards 🤦🏼‍♀️

@Skye109

I have to say, the more affluent the home and better educated the parents, the more destructive the little guests in my experience.

I’ve often pondered on this. I’m sure there are many reasons for this phenomenon but iI put it down to mc parents being more into trendy soft parenting theories than wc mums and dads. Also some mc parents are obsessed with maintaining and boosting their offspring’s self-esteem and are highly reluctant to reprimand them particularly in front of others. They are also more likely to believe their children are very special, highly intelligent and gifted, and excuse a lot of behaviour in that way.

The children’s friends from the council estate never caused any problems in our house. I found them polite and well-behaved, and less precocious and annoying! Their parents had clearly prioritised manners and weren’t scared of giving them a good telling off for bad behaviour.

Sorry to reinforce stereotypes, but I speak from bitter experience!

The mum I had to deal with did just this. Vanished.
DH and I agreed that if she didn’t come back by DDs bedtime we were calling the police.
We got very close to doing just that.

Neighbour had 2 DC very similar in age to my 2. Every so often we went for coffee in one of our houses, whilst the DC played. We'd both been busy and not met up for a while when I bumped in to her in the street and we both agreed we needed to meet up again soon and pencilled in a day/time. She contacted me a few days before to say she had an old friend visiting for a few days, but wanted to catch up so would it be OK to come over to mine and bring her friend. Not a problem. On the day, she called to say actually, could they come a little earlier. Again, not a problem. When they arrived, the DC started playing and she said she and friend had really wanted to visit a new shop in town that was not very child friendly (lots of breakables etc), so would I mind if they popped down whilst the DC were happy playing- and they would come home via the nice bakery to get cake for everyone. It seemed a bit cheeky, but I agreed. They seemed to have been a long time and I was considering calling to check that everything was OK when she called to say they ended up quickly nipping to another similar shop in the next town as well and 'lost track of time', but as it was now lunch time they'd just ordered themselves some lunch but would be back very soon 'with extra special cake for you to apologise for being so ditsy'. They finally appeared at about 5pm (having dropped her DC just before 10) with a box of Mr Kipling country slices which very much added insult to injury as they are particularly unpleasant and there were not even enough in the box for each of us and the DC to have one. I half expected a proper cake/apology after her friend had left (or at least an offer to look after my DC one day) but no, nothing.

I don't know, what if a parent had a one off emergency (lost phone, sick relative) and was an hour late? Would you call the police?

Took Ds (3) to a bouncy castle party, he managed to bang his nose on another child's head which caused a massive nose bleed, the horrifying part was he didn't seem to notice (or care) so continued jumping around merrily splattering everyone and everything with blood, I had to crawl on and pull him off by the ankles 😬

I’ve also had the “oh let’s all get together so the kids can play and we can chat!” From parents at school. I’ll get it in the diary and then I’ll always message the day before to say “looking forward to a cuppa and a chat!”

only for the parent to say “oh I’m working, I’ll drop the kids off at 10 and pick them up again around 4!” ….. NOPE!!

Had a couple over with their daughter for a lunch play date.

I provided lunch and some soft drinks. The wife then asks if I have any wine, so we drink the one bottle I have whilst her daughter is emptying the toy boxes, screaming and shouting whilst my kids sit there like.. wtf?

then she insists we go to the shop to get more. She fills her basket up with snacks, wine and stuff to take home. Get to the till… and she steps back! I was like “nope! I didn’t want anything and I didn’t pick anything up .. I’ll wait outside!” She had the audacity to complain it cost her £32!

got home and her daughter continues to run riot. She needs a poo, her mum shows her the bathroom… 10 minutes later they announce it’s finally time to leave and gathered up
their things very quickly. thank god.. it’s been 8 hours and they weren’t taking the hint)

when they left I immediately start tidying when my husband (now ex) says “I can smell poo”

I went upstairs and there is shit everywhere. The bathroom had it all over the floor and the carpet just outside it. And my towels had clearly been used to wipe her bum. It was up the wall near the toilet roll holder. Etc! Her child was 8!

never ever again.

I've just remembered another one. My friend brought her 12 and 6 year old sons with her when she came to my house to pick her middle son aged 10 up from my son's birthday party. All other kids had left, so my friend and I were just chatting while the kids were outside picking up nerf gun bullets. The 12 year old, who is incredibly athletic and kind of hero-worshipped by the younger kids, was showing off (climbing up outside of swingset, and standing on top of it etc.) and had been mildly told off a couple of times already by my husband who was supervising. His mum had not intervened at all at this point. He (the 12 year old!) then went too far and climbed onto the roof of the house via the deck, walked right up to the pitch, and (I believe not intentionally) knocked the ridge cap off. My husband then gave him a proper dressing down. Mum ordered all the kids into the car, and now she leaves the oldest home if she's coming to our house! The middle son, my son's friend, is an incredibly nice, polite kid, who can be rowdy but will never push boundaries like this.

Oh please do tell how they tried to kidnap the cat !

Mum dropped off small child after a lot of suggesting a play date between the kids (age about 3) and left so quickly she didnt even say bye. I didnt know she was even leaving. She didnt say a word.

She did not return for hours, well past dinner time. Turns out she had gone to see a 3 hour film and there was no reception in the cinema.

I had to feed her child (fair enough, it wasnt much) but he just kept getting more and more excited, screeching and destroying the house. It was awful by the time she came to get him. We had to put him in the living room and take it turns to guard him as he tried to destroy things so we could get on with our Sunday.

She then messaged and suggested I take him home one day a week after nursery and she would do the same with DD.

Her number was deleted and blocked and I never spoke to her again.

New girl at school asked dd over over. Dd had been struggling with friendships in school (bullying) so we were delighted. So glad i stayed with her and had coffee with her mother while dd went upstairs with the girl and a friend of the girl who was a neighbour.
dd comes down distraught a little while later. The two girls were behaving as if dd was a ghost, pretending they couldn’t see her at all. It was so bizarre and the mothers reaction was so odd too, she made out my dd had something wrong with her that she wasn’t going along with the game.

You were outside though no? I wouldn’t find that any different to an adult smoking cigarettes outside near children. Distasteful and not nice but not something I’d leave a house over in distress!

DD1 had a friend round, who went in my bedroom drawer, got out nail varnish remover and emptied it over DD2's head. About the only time I have shouted at a child I've had over, and she didn't come again. All the other friends were pretty sensible.

The one where the really dull father insisted on staying ( kid was 7) and sat in my kitchen for 2 hours droning on about his boring job and his even more boring hobby ( think collected obscure Japanese trading cards).

As a host, kid broke his own nose 😬 said child was acting like he’d never been outside his own house, however I was apologetic and said he’d been very excited and was a fast mover (ie. ungovernable and jumping off all the furniture like it was a soft-play). Tbh the dad was NOT nice about it. Still think about that a decade on.

My daughter had her 5th birthday party at a soft play, the whole class and a few extra siblings. A dozen of them came home, one girl with her 3 and 8 year old brothers. I explained that none were to go in the attic, or our bedroom.

At some point, I heard a loud thud and screaming, legged it up to the attic to find the three of them had trashed it. All my books were in a pile on the floor, they'd pulled all the bed sheets and mattress off, taken every CD and DVD out of their cases, along with the info sheets and smashed a load of the cases.

The thud was the wardrobe they'd emptied and pulled over. I showed the dad, he laughed, shrugged and said, "Oh, that's just what they're like."

On the way downstairs, the 9 year old boy was in the bathroom, he'd thrown all the toilet rolls in the loo and squirted shampoo and toothpaste everywhere.

I told dad to clean up and left him, all he did was fish the soggy toilet rolls out and dump them on the floor. I didn't want a scene and to ruin things. I bloody wish I had,though!

Wait this mum was supposed to bring her twins for a playdate and instead left you with all five of her children when you had 4 of your own including a 3 month old?

And was late and expected you to feed them all?? I'm speechless!

This was several years ago now. I had taken my then 4yo to a friend's house after school to play. The mother offered to make chicken nuggets for the children which I accepted. As we were in the kitchen putting them in the oven she told me her partner smoked weed and - you don't mind do you? I thought it was a bit of a weird question, but politely said I didn't mind, because I felt it was none of my business. We went outside to watch the children again and her partner proceeded to light up a joint right then and there and they passed it around between them and offered it to me I must have been incredibly naive and sheltered but I had not imagined in a million years that I was being asked "Is it OK if my partner smokes weed 5 feet from our very young children?" I didn't know people even did that. I assumed she meant that he smoked it in the evening when their child was in bed or something.

I was so taken aback I couldn't think what on earth to do. I felt it would be rude to leave immediately since the food was cooking in the oven, so I stayed there feeling incredibly uncomfortable trying to make polite conversation for the next 20 minutes while it cooked and then the children ate until I felt I could make an excuse and took DS home. I was so upset that I went straight to a nearby friend's house to sort of debrief but she wasn't in.

Maybe they had separate bathroom and toilet, that would confuse a child I'm sure.

Getting angry at a child for eating too much and vomiting sounds pretty heartless. There could have been many reasons for that, the most obvious one being you served too big portions and the child was coached to finish everything on their plate. Or you had too much junk food out and the child is not allowed that sort of thing at home and stuffed themselves. Or they had too much water/juice in their glass and felt obliged to finish it all with their food.

But if he was at the sink he was in very close proximity to the toilet no?

I have had this too. It wasn't a 'formal' meal but my friend went to her Dad and said 'I want some of this!' and showed him a tin of spaghetti hoops and sausages. Dad made her it.
I was starving when I got home and told my Mum who was fuming.

Your son is 9 and he rolled around in dog's sht? Is he not aware of his surroundings? It's disgusting to let kids play in a garden where there's dog sht but I'd expect 9 years old to stay well away from it!

This reminds me of a mum I encountered in the playground when my DS was about 5ish. We didn't know them but her son and mine played together so we struck up a conversation. She sounded British as in no detectable foreign accent but kept talking to her child in a language I couldn't quite recognised and since I am bilingual and spoke to my son in my language I interestedly asked which language she spoke.to her child in. Oh I am trying to get my son bilingual, they are so impressionable at this age so I only speak French to him.She told me she is not particularly fluent in French but since kids that age learn languages so easily she thought she'd try it. I am in no way fluent in French but definitely know enough to get by and what she spoke to the son sounded absolutely nothing like French at all. I've often wondered if it worked out for her.