My 7yo almost 8yo kid gets on great with her (3 houses) neighbours kids. They have great garden equipment and for her, are the current buzz, not least because our after school activities have not yet kicked in. The neighbours are nice and they are lovely kids. One of them is a couple of years younger just turned 6, another same age, only likes /can handle supervised parent interactive play, the other is almost 10 and only opts in when he is enjoying it. Understandable to me and perfectly in keeping. The neighbours with the child who must-have-interactive play have started suggesting that I start doing some interactive/parent participation playdates after school and at weekends to reciprocate their involvement with their kid and playmates. I have several older kids who have different but very strong requirements and I have loads of other commitments, and I don’t feel I should have to spell these out to say “um, no sorry. Kids welcome to come and play, but I am not going to drive them to such and such a place, or push swings and such and such a place. Or hover around by back garden.” My child can play independently, thankfully, but it seems these kids cannot, or at least their parents do not. The neighbour with the older (by 1 year) is apparently exempt because they don’t get back home until after 6:30 and he only opts in occasionally and he is seen as significantly older (?!) . I didn’t sign up for this. I don’t want to take my kid out of this friendship group because it makes her happy. But wtf do I do to so I can get these neighbours to back off without hurting their feelings? I genuinely thought this type of playdate pressure tailed off when they were about 4. Sorry if this sounds churlish. My other real life stuff is leaving me absolutely exhausted!