To charge my guests for their dinner

[OhDeeeeeryMe]

Name change as some of you may recognise me..

My husband lost his job recently and money has been tight. Today I invited my friends for dinner and they texted at the last minute to say that their babysitter could not make it and they would be coming with their SIX children in tow...

So anyway, would I be unreasonable to charge them £2 per guest for their dinner? I think this is reasonable?

This is a 'wind up', is it not OP? If not come back and tell us what you did please.

This has to be a wind up. The details don't add up. No one is THAT rude. And if you're so broke you can't afford beans on toast for six kids then you are also too broke to offering others roast lunch.

I now think it's a wind-up too - having noticed that she says "Today I invited etc".

Don't believe you would issue a same-day invite to people living 2 hours away who needed (and apparently succeeded) to get a baby sitter for 6.

Yeah charging is BU & would be a surefire way to end a friendship. I'd either ask them to rearrange or buy a shitey Iceland pizza for the kids and scrabble around for a kiddy friendly DVD (Roy Chubby Brown, that kind of thing) in your collection: problem solved for about 2 quid.

God these wind up threads get on my nerves , I mean what is the point

Cook one of the children when they get there, They still have 5 left.

They are bold not to tell the children were coming, but you would be awful to charge guests.

You can rustle anything up for children and they're usually happy.
I wouldn't be happy, but only because i'd want to feed the kids as well.

You just politely change the date for when they can get a sitter.

It has to be a wind up, inviting people to dinner on the same day, how they arranged a babysitter and then she suddenly could not make it all in that short space of time

Just meant that like others have said it does not add up.

Sounds like a wind up to me.
Do you like bike riding OP?

How silly OP, not at all funny, just sad.
New Year's resolution for you; Get out more!

Not a wind up, was meant to read - I invited them to todays dinner, as in, i invited them to have dinner today, to have the dinner today, not the invite today...?

Yes, apparently babysitters house was on way, and I had originally invited them and their kids (I have 4 of my own) they declined on the offer to bring their kids at the time and so they didn't think it would be a problem to text last minute to let me know they would be coming ...

I prepared the dinner as planned and explained there wouldn't be enough food for all the kids, provided them with some leaflets I had for pizza/chinese/indian delivery and explained that there was a mc donalds down the road, felt really mean doing this but short notice meant I hadn't budgeted!! Not to mention the fact that the dinner was nearly finished by the time I got the text! The kids all had to eat in the living room and with spoons seeing as I didn't have enough forks

For the record I wouldn't have actually charged them £2 per meal was just really annoyed and thinking I should just to put point across to them that what they did was unreasonable!!!

Did they apologise for the short notice?

But they didn't do anything unreasonable. Not if they were let down at the last minute and you had originally invited the whole family anyway. It was just unfortunate.

AIBU by stealth - grrr!!

I read this whole thread with this face that people could really think it was reasonable to just bring their 6 children for dinner with 45 mins notice without calling to check it was OK.

While I still think they're a bit cheeky the fact that their kids were initially invited too means they're not being all that cheeky are they? And you can hardly moan about the kids eating in the sitting room with spoons - what would have happened if they had accepted the initial invitation for all of them but this?

I think they should have checked that the babysitter was actually available. Landing up with 6 extra mouths to feed is completely unreasonable. I assume that between issuing the invite and today the OP had been to the supermarket and purchased sufficient food based on expected numbers, not the number that turned up today. One extra mouth to feed isn't a problem, but 6 is.

Shit happens.

But with all those takeaways and a McDonalds down the road, it was hardly an insurmountable problem, was it. If the OP had mentioned those at the outset instead of moaning that the shops were all shut, the thread may have gone differently. (As well as the fact that the kids had originally been invited)

Personally I'd have made the kids something cheap quick and easy, eg pasta and chopped tomatoes or toasted cheese sandwiches and sat them in front of tv whilst the adults ate.

1 or 2 extra to feed fine, but 6 how cheeky. You were right to steer them towards the takeaways, they cannot expect you to cater for that many at extremely short notice on New Years day!