To think that a 5 year old child should automatically take their plate into the kitchen etc?

[CatMandu]

Ds and dd2 both had friends to play a couple of days ago, so we had five children for supper. One of the guests looked at me as if I was asking him to do something extraordinary when I asked him to take his plate into the kitchen. He also just wandered away from the table when the food was finished.

Now, it made me wonder if I'm a little unrealistic expecting children to ask to leave the table and to clear their plates away. I don't want to embarrass my dc's or their friends. The children were all 5 and 6.

No one as said that. Justthat you shouldn't expect all children to know the rules of your house. It is not the norm in all houses, as this thread shows. However, I can see no problem with asking a child politely to take their plate out, once everyone has finished eating.

It was another post (not OP) that mentioned not expecting children to wait till everyone had finished ,but still taking plates out.

YABU to expect a 5 year old to do this automatically.

I also think that guests should not be expected to clean up after themselves.

If the friend was someone we had over lots, then I may say "Would you kids mind...."

We've never done that in our house. Usually i gather them up when i can be bothered to do the washing up

My 5yr old had a friend over for tea the other day and after he finished, he duly took up his plate and put it in the sink! Me and OH were gobsmacked as we watched our son leave his plate there and wander off to play!

We asked his friends mum if we could keep him, but she declined

I guess we are just the great unwashed