What age to leave them to it on playdates?

[Goneforgood72]

My DS is 9. He has regular playdates with a friend, we usually take turn about for them to come here / go to his friend's house. When they come to me, I don't let them just sit and play Ipad all afternoon - they get an hour or so then they get sent outside to play or whatever. They always complain about being told to stop gaming. We only have Ipads, no PS / XBox etc (yet).

They are more or less fine about the restrictions on tablet time, but I am wondering at what age do I stop getting to dictate what they do with their friends during 'playdates'? 11yrs? 12yrs? Can I still tell two 12 yr olds that they have to stop gaming and play Lego instead? Or go and run around outside? Or older / younger than that?

What age have you left them to it?

Up to you. If you've always let them play on screens all day, then they'll be pretty cross if you start restricting it when friends are round, but if you've never let them play on screens before 4pm or whatever, then it won't be a big deal.

Also, once they get to secondary, and then into their teens, they do friendship differently and you aren't generally involved in the arrangements.