To serve tea at 14.39?

[DaanSaaf]

Dc have 2 friends here. I told their dm I'd drop them off after tea. I can give it now right? Right??

Courage, op, courage.

I'll hold your hand.

Poor you

I'm two hours ahead so twod' be acceptable here.

They've been here since 11. I've done my time waaaaaaaaaa

Yeah I would say so...

Why did you agree after tea?!?

I've been know to start preparing food at 3.30pm & serve it at 4pm.

I feel much less stressed when they're eating as it means it's nearly home time!!

Hang on in there!!

Oh no op- sending you a hand hold/ cuppa/ paracetamol/ gin!

Could they watch a film for a bit then “ make “ their tea ie pizza decoration / build their own taco so you could start tea earlier! Hope the other mum reciprocates.

I would go for it!

Hmmm I recon the earliest you can get away with tea is probably 4pm.

Text the parents and say somethings come up and you'll need to return them now?

Pretend you're me. I never use 'tea' for a meal. You're making yourself a cup of tea, right? Now?

You said afternoon tea didn't you?

Give them a sandwich cut into triangles, biscuit, bit of cake and some squash and you're done.

I did their dinner at 12 that they didn't eat so surely 3.30 is ok? They'll be hungry by then won't they? They've killed each other over every game, the weather is shit so we can't go out and no one wants to watch a film.

To me tea actually means a cup of tea - you could say that’s what you meant and drop them off straight after your cup of tea!

Ugh. Poor you, OP. No advice, just sympathy.

Haha, we had lunch at 11 15. So go for it!

Sorry, tea=dinner here and dinner=lunch. So for the dc it would usually be around 5.30

Or cries. It's been a long day

You cant send them back until 18:00 I would say.

How about you get their coats on and make them walk someone in the leaves and wind for a good hour. Supervised if you have to. By the time you get back they will be cold, tired and want to sit in front of the box quietly whilst you make tea, then HOME!

In seriousness OP, I would bring mealtime forward and text the parents saying you’ll be dropping them off around 4.30 (having eaten) as everyone is getting a bit of cabin fever.

My kids are a bit older now so their mates are easy.

However, one year I had the day from hell with 2 friends over for each of them (6 kids in total). I resorted to paying them 1p for every 10 leaves they picked up in the garden and put in a wheelbarrow. Worked a treat....

Oh no! I've nearly always enjoyed play dates! What's going wrong? How old are they?

If they are just there to play and it's all going pear shaped, ring the mum and say they're not getting on, can you drop them now.

was a childminding course -tutor question (she had never been a childminder) "what do you do when stressed by children?" - make a cup of tea "NO ,I mean really stressed!" - make another cup of tea??? - or you know its a bad day when you have microwaved your first tea 3 times. :)

Get them to make bread pizza (slice of bread, tom sauce (you can use jar mix only need a teaspoon and grated cheese toasted). Keeps them occupied you can add bits of ham, pepper, sweetcorn etc. Generally done with baguettes but this calls for all measures - lol.

Bananas and custard for pudding. Job done. They can chop the banana with table knives.

The reason for getting them to do bits is to occuply them so they are not screaming round the house.

Failing that chuck them outside for half an hr, prep tea, get kettle on take 5 before letting them back in.

My Mums trick was letting us build a den in the garden and then letting us have tea outside in the den. As an adult I understand her wisdom

Take them to the parker a runaround and sit on the bench with a book for the next 4 hours