Wwyd - lone friends etiquette

[BedraggledBlitz]

Posting in chat for traffic.

If you went to soft play with a friend. Then a new friend (who doesn't know the friend you are with) came in alone...would you invite lone friend to join you?

Or would you just go over for a quick chat.

Go over for a chat then ask does she want to join you?

Why not just ask the friend you are with if they mind if you invite lone friend to join you?

Ask them to join you of course. It’s softplay, not fine dinning!

Of course it might depend on what the original adults were discussing. If my other friend was in the midst of telling me about their marriage problems, infertility struggle or similar it might not be appropriate

It depends on how the conversation was going with the friend I was with. If she was talking about something deep and meaningful, then I wouldn’t ask the lone person to join us.

Sorry but I'd be really pissed off if I'd gone out with a mate knowing I could have a good catch up and then they invited a stranger to join us. Changes the dynamic of the conversation completely.

I don't get a lot of spare time to see friends though, I guess it's different if you're catching up with them every couple of days.

I'd invite them to join me.

I’d ask them to join us. It’s soft play.

I’d invite them to join us.

Would depend. If there was a need for a very personal conversation due to one of us having some difficulties, I wouldn't ask them to sit with us. If we were only able to get together very rarely and this was the only catchup for a significant length of time, I'm u sure if I'd invite them over, would depend. If it was a regular thing, absolutely. As the friend turning up- I wouldn't expect to sit with them, and would assume if it was suitable to do so they would ask me to. If they didn't I wouldnt be offended.

Invite them to join you

I’d invite them to join us. The more the merrier. Soft play isn’t generally somewhere I’d go for a meaningful catch up.

Go say hello and invite to join. Leave it up to the person who came in alone to accept or decline.

Thanks, I'm more in the holly way of thinking which doesn't seem popular. I've not seen my original mate for a few weeks and she's just had baby, so lots to catch up on.

The other friend is a new acquaintance who I like and don't want to offend cos she was kind enough to include me in a social group of nursery mums which meant a lot to me.

I'm very socially awkward and will overthink whatever scenario plays out.

Sorry but I'd be really pissed off if I'd gone out with a mate knowing I could have a good catch up and then they invited a stranger to join us.

But then a noisy, busy softplay is an odd location to choose, invite them for a coffee and a play date at your home.

I wouldn’t really normally consider a softplay as somewhere for private chats

Nothing odd about it, keeps the little ones entertained way more than I could at home.

Don't need a 'private chat' but there are going to be things that a stranger won't need to hear.