School friends for tea how often? x

[louise5754]

How often do you have your child's friends over after school?

How often do they go to their friends?

How many friends do they do this with?

Depends very much on age.
Mines 11, he invites no-one from school over.
But would like his cousins to be here all the time

DD has 3 friends we regularly do play dates with, it is probably once a fortnight across all 3 and we always take it in turns.

We can't really do it more often as we have limited days available between us due to after school activities.

Mine is 6. She's been to play at friends' houses maybe 6-10 times in 2 years. Two different friends, both from school. We've had a friend over once in that time. I don't tend to reciprocate playdates evenly. When she first started school, I had just had a baby and couldn't easily supervise them when I was constantly feeding a baby (it was enough just managing her), but now I've gone back to work and we both work pretty much full time. Her friends' mums are SAHM. I've usually trying to catch up on work emails in the after school hours if I'm home. Play dates aren't really a priority for me, so we mostly see friends if they ask her over or at birthday parties or other school events.

DS2 is now 10 and we haven't had anyone for ages. He now talks to most of them after school over the Xbox and his best friend lives just a few houses away so they're out together quite frequently. When he was younger I'd have his group of friends ( 5 inc DS) over in one go, maybe once or twice a term)

DS1 is 15 and we've now gone a full circle and now we've regularly got a houseful of teens eating anything they can out of our fridge . I love it!

Reception - none. But he has friends from church and cousins over frequently. They are his closest friends.

DS2 is 9. He never has anyone over after school (its too complicated. Everyone works, or on the day they finish early I don't finish early etc etc) We invite someone over at the weekend now and again (maybe once a month) He goes to a friends house at the weekend maybe once every three months. I think it might be a little different if his friends were in the same street, but none of them are.
DS1 is 12. He hates having friends over. Once a month he might go to his friends house, but they end up mooching around the streets. After school doesn't really happen as he doesn't get home till 5 and just wants to chill out.

DS is 6 (Y1). He has a friend over about three or four times a term on average - 5 different ones altogether so far, although his 2 closest friends have come a few times now. I'm a SAHM so it's easy for me to host playdates - most of his friends' parents work, so it's more difficult for them to have him over. He probably goes to a friend's about once or twice a term.