I am a single mum, and I work full time, I have a son who is 11 years old.
He often asks his freinds over to our house at weekends and in the holidays. I often take these freinds swimming, to the beach or just have them over to my house and give them lunch etc.
This all costs money, and a couple of the mums will put a tenner in my when I drop the kids off. To be honest it makes me feel like a baby sitter.
Not ONE of the mothers have ever asked my son back, EVER.
My son is a normal kid, not badly behaved, so I am getting more and more angry at me having to do eveything. A couple of the mums have time and money to spare, one just plays golf all day, and the other mum although she works, has a partner who could help out.
One of the boys comes from a very poor family, so at first was glad to take him out and feed him - but he now just asks for food and expects to be taken out and gets annoyed if we dont stop off at a cafe on the way home. he also steals from our house. His mother has never thanked me - not once.
If I dont arrange to have these children over to my house or to take them out and about - my son would have no freinds at all, except for those he sees at school ini school time.