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Original poster

If you invite toddler round to 'tea' do you feed the parent(s) also?

28 replies

Pruni · 22/03/2006 19:58

Just wondering.
Parents of toddler arrived with wine and yummy bread and I had made no food for them. 5pm.
Nobody I know eats adult dinner at 5. Am cringing...

OP posts:
gothicmama · 22/03/2006 19:59

we used feed kids about 4:30 and adults had cup of tea and cakes

PrincessPeaHead · 22/03/2006 19:59

How WIERD. Cup of tea and a crumpet if they are lucky!!!! 5 o'clock is afternoon tea time if you are over the age of 8 I reckon...

oops · 22/03/2006 20:00

i suppsoe i mak a big load of soup or pasta and say if they want some they can have some...
i am usually inviting my mates who own the toddler, vs inviting the toddler who brings the parents IYSWIM

Original poster
Pruni · 22/03/2006 20:02

Well of course I know the parents too, and I like them enormously, it is (was?) a burgeoning friendship.
Still cringing. It's so awful not to provide for people - I had nothing in to make a meal for four as well as toddler dinners. I mean a meal that goes with wine and lovely bread...

OP posts:
moondog · 22/03/2006 20:04

They may just have been piss artists......??

SenoraPostrophe · 22/03/2006 20:04

no cake?

you couldn't remain a friend of mine for very long!

really - did you ask them if they were expecting to eat? they might just drink wine at 5pm a lot. I can recommend it.

niceglasses · 22/03/2006 20:04

I do usually, but I know these couple of pple quite well now, close friends I'd say and I try to cook something everyone can eat...not always successfully. Its the wine that counts in my book...sod the food.

niceglasses · 22/03/2006 20:06

I really think my body craves wine at 5pm now. I have one every night to get me thru the teatime madness. Its a true addiction...am a harlot?

Original poster
Pruni · 22/03/2006 20:08

Well the wine went down vv well.
No cake - no??! At 5pm? Cake is a 4 o'clock thing in our house. (Oh god they will never speak to me again, will they?)

OP posts:
gingernut · 22/03/2006 20:09

No! Coffee/tea and biscuits/cake at tea time. If they come for lunch I usually do (bought) soup and rolls for adults after the children have eaten.

I would have cracked open the wine though Grin.

SenoraPostrophe · 22/03/2006 20:10

ha! cake is a 4pm, 5pm, 6pm, 7pm and 8 pm thing, plus the mornings in our house. but that's because I'm up the duff. can't think beyond cake.

sharklet · 22/03/2006 21:42

You can never go wrong with cake Pruni ;)

Am sure they're probably cringing thinking they are total alckies

colditz · 22/03/2006 21:58

Ummmm, well if I invite the toddler to tea, I don't expect to feed the adults... but we don't eat seperately from our ds, and never have. So if you invited us round as a family "for tea" I would expect to be fed. Ditto if I invite a family round for tea. They all get a meal.

Out of curiosity, are you from the South and they from the North?

Original poster
Pruni · 22/03/2006 22:00

Nope, I am Scottish and they are N American
Maybe it's a culture thing?
But we eat at 7 or 8, I thought they ate later over there, tbh

OP posts:
colditz · 22/03/2006 22:02

Maybe they do what we do and eat as a family?

spidermama · 22/03/2006 22:04

I'm sorry pruni but I eat dinner at 5pm. I also have supper at about 9. Blush

I think I would have done something like garlic bread and salad for the parents to snack on.

Oh God! How embarrassing for you. I'm LOL though.

Bozza · 22/03/2006 22:06

Hmmm. See the embarassment. We eat as a family at 6-6.30 pm.

Original poster
Pruni · 22/03/2006 22:14

Salad's not a snack!

OP posts:
handlemecarefully · 22/03/2006 22:15

I usually offer the mum some dinner, since I tend to eat dinner with my toddlers at circa 17.00 (rather than eat with dh at 21.00!!)....

However, I wouldn't be put out if I accompanied my two to a tea time play date and the other parent didn't offer me food. Everybody does things differently after all...

spidermama · 22/03/2006 22:16

I bet they're at least as embarrassed as you are, if not more so.

Original poster
Pruni · 22/03/2006 22:16

Well phew have had an email (I couldn't let it lie) and they assure me they weren't expecting dinner and indeed eat at about 9pm.
So social disgrace will have to wait for another day.

OP posts:
collision · 22/03/2006 22:18

Senora! Up the duff! Did I miss this? When are you due?

Congrats by the way!

No, i would not feed adults at 5pm but would have opened the wine and the bread!

Dottydot · 22/03/2006 22:19

Pruni - that's twice in 10 minutes you've made me lol (love the Boden thread!). I think we'd usually just dig into the sandwiches, hula hoops, dairylea and whatever else was flung on the table for the kids - or done a stockpot of sauce that could have stretched round however many adults aswell. But we tend to eat early - at about 6pm - so I wouldn't think it was that unusual.

I think I'd probably have assumed adults were eating if they were staying with the child - but I think in a past life I must have been Jewish 'cos I do want to feed people all the time (including myself, unfortunately...).

SleepyJess · 22/03/2006 22:20

We are sooo unsophisticated... we feed everyone.. including guests, young or old, at 5-6pm when we always eat dinner... and only ever drink wine in the evening because I would fall asleep before I'd got the kids to bed otherwise!!

sharklet · 22/03/2006 22:28

DH is am American Pruni and all his colleagues seem to eat lunch at around 11am and dinner at around 5pm.

So maybe its a culture thing.