How often do you have people over for a meal?

[Tiqtaq]

For me maybe once a month but that's mainly lunch for a friend or a roast with siblings and parents.

I never do big dinner parties and wonder if other people still do? My parents had people over to eat way more often than I do.

So, I'm interested to know, how often do you have people over for a meal?

Never, for a couple of reasons.

1. We have a rescue dog who doesn't like people coming in the house
2. We don't have those kinds of friends... we usually meet them outdoors on hikes or climbs or on the lake
3. If meeting friends for food I much prefer going to a pub as long as we don't need to dress up.

My children are older now (sixth form/uni age), but we started hosting/going to dinner parties more post children.

Ours are some of the eldest, so initially, popping the kids to bed and inviting childfree friends round was our way of having a social life. But then as more kids came along, we used to do whole family events - kids playing together - then fed tea, then popped to sleep at whichever house we were at - adults sat down for dinner later and then either everyone slept over, or adults would manoeuvre sleeping children into their car seats, and they'd be driven home and popped straight into bed.

As they got older, it would be kids in front of a film with pizza, adults in the dining room having dinner. Nowadays, kids are generally old enough to stay at home for adult meals, but generally join in for big roasts or BBQs etc. But they've all grown up together, so whilst they have their own friends, they do still like to catch up from time to time.

Activities tended to be practices weekday eves, matches/performances/recitals tended to be Sat or Sun morning, so not really an issue.

We're about to move to a property with more space so I'm hoping we'll do it more often.

We do all time time. At least once a week for family and close friends, sometimes twice if both sides of family are coming on different days.

I love to cook for people so I really enjoy planning what I’m going to make. In the summer we have pizza a lot!

We have a two year old and most of our socialising is with parents with similar age children.

We either do an afternoon thing or we pile all the kids into a couple of bedrooms for a sleep if it’s evening.

Never. Can’t remember the last time, probably a couple of years ago friends came and we had a takeaway.

Only during semi-lockdown. Unless you have children, it's much more fun to go out isn't it? And not more expensive either because invitations don't necessarily get reciprocated.

And someone else gets to cook and wash up - win win.

Most weeks at least once a week we have people round for dinner/lunch

And the shopping and the cleaning beforehand.
Washing up is Ok with a dishwasher.
It's also just much nicer to be in a different place than your own four walls.

Rarely. I don’t enjoy it anymore.
DH likes hosting but isn’t great with the shopping / prepping / cooking and tidying afterwards.

Never. Unless its friends who love nothing more than pizzas, cheese and crisps. We dont invite people over (hate guests) but these are our closest friends. So close they went for a walk on Christmas day night with a torch and came over to see us. Stayed on the sofa!

Never

Very rarely host and very rarely go to other people's houses to eat other than parents and in-laws. We go to restaurants with friends a lot though, I much prefer this to hosting or being hosted. I like having a menu to choose my meal from.

We do have people stay over at ours fairly often though because we live city center so I'll usually make them breakfast the next morning.

Otherwise, it's just a few BBQ's in the garden during the summer.

I’m pretty sure I hosted a dinner party in 1990/1991.

Eurovision and Advent.

Hardly ever. I hate hosting. I'd rather meet friends out for dinner.

When the kids were younger, it used to be a few times a week informally. Always had friends round on a Sunday.

Now that they're older, and my life has significantly moved on, I can't be bothered to be sociable in that way. Much prefer going out to hosting.

About every 3 weeks I would say on average.

Most weeks and always have done.
However musing over the last few meals with friends (not living away family) I realised the last few meals have been very hit and miss. I’ve become so focussed on being relaxed and a fun host I’ve served up some shockers.

We have family over for a meal/bbq for Mother’s Day, Easter, Father’s Day and Xmas day.

All of our friends prefer to go out, we don’t really go to each other’s houses. Used to when we were younger.

Never. We don't have the space, for starters.

My mum comes over for roasts/fish and chips sometimes, but other than that only other friends/family afew times a year really....either for a BBQs or a lunch buffet, as we don't have a dining table big enough to fit more than 4 people around it (and that's us and our 2 kids already) to eat a meal and also because hosting is expensive! I think when one day we have a bigger house, more money and our kids are older and easier we may like to do it more.

I used to at least twice a month, and in the beginning really enjoyed it. A lot of my friends were single males though: it was rarely reciprocated, and it came to be expected rather than something nice I did for them.

I started having health issues around the time of the first lockdown and used that as the excuse to stop. I don't miss feeling like a servant in my own home, and only meet up with friends in cafes and restaurants now.

Never. Where am I supposed to host them.
I have a tiny 1 bed flat with barely enough room to swing a cat.