Play date mess

[NeverMetACakeIDidntLike]

My DD1 is 5 (and DD2 is 1).

When we have friends over with kids, they seem to empty everything out. Everywhere.
Games with lots of bits.
Jigsaws.
Figures.
Toy food.

It basically looks like we've been burgled.
They don't seem to play with 80% of what they empty out.

It drives me INSANE.

I don't show it.

Kids make a crappy effort at tidying up - you know, the long stuff into random boxes so that everything is jumbled up and none of the games / jigsaws have the right bits together.

What are you supposed to do? Suck it up as par for the course? Give your own DC a pep-talk about what not to do? Helicopter around them asking them not to do stuff?

What do you do?

Throw, not long.
Weird autocorrect mistake!

Their parents (your friends!) should be telling their kids to tidy up before they leave. If they don't bother then you have to say "OK come on everyone, let's get this lot tidied up!" They'd have to have a brass neck to sit there and leave you to deal with it all.

And I'd be reluctant to have them back if they were lazy arses.

Kids go a bit demented when they have play dates.

If I were you, I'd put jigsaws and bitty toys away before hand and set up the things they can play with.

When kids were coming over to play and this sort of chaos was likely to happen, I used to put boxes of small things away where they couldn't get them, eg in a cupboard / my bedroom, leaving just one or two options out. If sprog comes to you asking for something else, you can say "Yes, sure, let's put the cars away and then you can have the kitchen stuff out.".

I used to host a meeting for several families every week, for years. Had to find a way to not collapse in shock when they all left

Yeah all good points thanks. I normally like to leave things within reach of the kids (my DC) so that they can help themselves to what they fancy playing with - and they are good at tidying up afterwards (with persuasion).

Probs not the best idea for a play date though.

Hide the jigsaws/games with little bits. I don't let mine (ages 4 and 2) have feee access to these so they are on high shelves anyway. My 4 YO play style seems to be "empty everything out and trash the room and then sit in it/drop stuff from a great height". It drives me mad. I hate toys. I want to burn them all. But obviously I can't do that, hence the high shelves with things that are easily ruined/broken/lost.