To not provide any "child friendly" activities?

[Stanley38]

DH and u are having some friends and neighbours over for drinks and food. I have said that children are of course welcome because I know how difficult it can be to find childcare and I am also more than happy to have children there.

My worry is that any kids will be very bored in our house! DH and I don't have children so there's nothing interesting for them here. I have assumed that if people are coming and bringing kids then they will make sure they have toys/ activities of some sort if they feel their children are likely to get bored. Is this unreasonable? As I said, we don't have children ourselves so I'm not sure what the "done thing" is.

I wouldn't expect someone to provide children's activities. If you're providing food and drink then it'd be nice to have children's options, but I think that's about as far as most people would expect a host to go to accommodate children.

I would not expect activities for kids at someone else's drinks party and would take coloring, stickers or even a tablet at a push. I would hope that juice would be available for my kids and snacks that they could eat (i.e. without chili etc) unless they were tiny or very fussy. Tbh unless it was a friend who had their own kids that mine could disappear with, I wouldn't plan to stay for long anyway.

You're not being unreasonable. Nobody I know would expect a couple without kids to have kids activities to hand. They need to manage those themselves

Thanks knits!
Re the kids food, this is something I probably have overlooked. I always just had to eat whatever was going when I was younger but I do realise times have changed! At the risk of sounding SO stupid, what could I add to the buffet table that would be suitable for kids between the ages of 3 and 11?

Good news on the activities/ toys it seems. Phew! Thanks all :-)

Naive chicken nuggets, cheese pizza and a bowl of cherry tomatoes / cucumber slices would do very well for kids.

That I can do, Bradley! You've all been so helpful, thank you.

I'd not worry too much - my 3 year old will go for what looks like the grown up food every time!
But maybe think if you have cream carpets and are offering anything too spill able? Mini cocktail sausages always good, hula hoops, mini sausage rolls etc(basically the 3for £3 tesco tubs) but equally don't go too much out of your way
Do yo have a tv you can put on without spoiling the party? As a Christmassy film like Arthur Christmas (£3 at Tesco) would keep (some) children entertained. Or ipad with CBeebies? Or wifi password ready to pass out to put into iPhones? I have two very energetic boys and if we were invited to non-child house I would bring our iPad with CBeebies downloaded for the duration as they would charge about like feral beasts otherwise

Don't do cherry tomatoes or you will need to cut them in half for the 3/4 year olds.

No way would I expect a child-free household to provide children's toys or activities for a party like that - I'd go armed with a suitable set of distractions, wouldn't even occur to me that you'd provide.

That said, i would think you were the most amazing and thoughtful hostess ever if you did lay something on. Some really simple low-mess crafts would be suitable for a range of ages - you could print out some Christmas tree shapes and provide crayons and stickers to decorate them. Or a couple of packs of self-adhesive paper chain sets.

DVD on quietly in the corner is a good idea too!

Well... of course I DO want to be the most amazing and thoughtful hostess ever!

Will definitely look into the Christmas tree shapes.

Id do something as bored children can cause trouble and not all parents are vigilant.
just stick a film on for them if you have a corner available.
Arts and crafts are good but there's the worry of mess and a child having the urge to draw on a wall or something.
Stickers and Xmas tree shapes or similar would be OK.

If you have sky/virgin/Netflix then find a nice film for them, either record in advance or download. Frozen pizzas and juice always go down well. I have kids, and we have other people's kids over fairly often. I've done the lovely kiddie buffet with activities, and I've done pizzas and watching home alone, kids are totally happy with either - but the latter is definitely less stressful for the host!

It's in your interests to have a room they can sit in with films etc. Ask the parents to bring toys/devices. Can I come???

I would not expect someone else to provide entertainment for my child, I'd bring things for my child to do.

YANBU

Thank you all! I removed my laptop etc from my office and set up a "cinema" with a TV, DVD player, a red lamp for "cinema lighting" and reclining chairs (sun loungers!). I don't know how much they actually watched, but they did stay up there for most of the party anyway!

Frozen pizza, cocktail sausages and chicken goujons seemed to go down well.

And it left us adults time time enjoy the prosecco cocktails

You sound like an amazing host and so pleased everyone had fun.

That sounds amazing!

Dear lord OP but you have reminded me of being taken to my parents' no-kids friends' home when I was about six and being allowed to eat the adult food and look at the books on their shelves instead of being fobbed off with "things for children" and deciding that I really liked these people. I haven't thought about what a good day that was for fifty-odd years and I am grateful for the pleasure your last post has given me!

Wow it sounds like a fab time. Can I come next year?

Invite us, you sound amazing.

Haha! To be honest, I am hoping to pass the baton to another neighbour for next year because I don't think a year is long enough to recover from the stress of the preparation!
I enjoyed the night, but I think only because I was quite well prepared (chuffed face!). But yes, maybe only every couple of years!