to expect DDs back from a playdate before bedtime?

[bratnav]

DD2 and DSD were at a playdate, due back at 6, friends Mum agreed to bring them back as I have a 5mo and DH is in hospital. I text at 6.25 to check everything was ok, no response, they were dropped back at 6.55. I was upstairs putting the baby to bed so DD1 answered the door, it sounded like the Mum practically threw the kids in the door and scarpered before I could talk to her

she had both your kids?
she was probably really fraught!

I would hope that it's not normal behaviour from her but because something came up at home- doesn't excuse her not letting you know though. I would ask next time you see her, see if she apologises.

YANBU - it would worry me if my DC were brought back nearly an hour late from a playdate and their friend's mother was not contactable by phone...

compo - she had 2 of my 4 DCs, they are in the same class

This sort of thing really annoys me.

My 7 year old dh was due home from a playdate by 8 at latest and wasn't dropped off to me until after 9pm. I couldnt get hold of the mother and was really quite worried and annoyed by the time they showed up.

The mother's excuse was that someone had rung her as she was on her way out. She only lives 10mins away so that was a pretty long phone call.

I said nothing but resolved to aoid any future playdates at that house. My dh does not even particularly get on with the child anyway. But the mother has now asked my dh on another playdate again and I am trying to think of ways to get out of it!

Bloody nightmare.

Never again, I was terrified, I mean I know it is a kid in their class but I was actually starting to panic about having to phone DSDs Mum to tell her that her DD was missing

I would def ask her next time i see her , maybe an emergency came up ?

oh and Nikita not your dh surely

LOL at Nikita09's post about her dh PMSL

OOPS just read that back now, that's hilarious. My brain just goes into shutdown mode from about 7pm onwards, how mortifying

its ok nikita i expect my DH home on time too

i would definitely ask your DD's friend's mum why she was late but maybe in a friendly way just to see what she says. she might have let time get away from her whilst having fun with the kids easily done i think but not acceptable for her to have ignored your message (unless she had no credit on her phone and couldnt answer)

lol made me laugh especially the mother asking him on another play date

When I used to offer to take friends home I was always amazed how long it took them to get their outside clothes on! I'd say Oh it's time to get ready to go home and ten minutes later they'd stil be chattering and barely attempting to get a shoe on. I wonder if they were waiting for me to do it for them!

So I was always at least half an hour late getting children home.

Under thos circumstances you should phone, not text. Texts sometimes don't arrive for several hours. So you can't assume that she wasn't contactable because she didn't respond to your text.

But, yes, she ought to have called you to let you know what was happening.

When I offered to take the dds' friends home obviously. My own friends are quite capable of dressing themselves

OTOH I think it is pretty generous to offer to have two children over to play AND bring them home!!! I don't think I ever sent my children to a play date in pairs, and certainly never expected the other mum to bring them home.

I know you explained that you couldn't pick yours up yourself, but, TBH I think the other mum was more than generous. She was probably quite fraught. Did she have to put her own children in the car and bring them all to yours to drop yours off?

Yes it was generous of her to have both. She has 1 child.

she didn't have to do it if she didn't want 2 extra children!!

I think it was terrible of her not to drop you a "sorry - running late" message whether text or call