Play date etiquette for 5 year old

[pepinanalilyplant]

Hello,

DD started P1 recently and have made some new friends she'd like to invite for play dates. Previously it's always been with my friends children therefore there was no question about time limits or parents staying over.

What's the norm? Do the parents stay or drop and run? Is 2 hours the normal time duration.. ? Anything else I need to know?

Quite possible I'm over thinking here but we have no family here and no cousins. So happy my shy and quiet DD has made some friends and would love to foster these friendships.

Many thanks.

I think drop and go kicks in at this age. But just ask the other parent :) From my experience I would suggest having an activity planned, like craft or baking. If they play lovely then you don't have to do it. But they do sometimes still need parent direction on things like disagreements on what game to play. I got this tip on here when I asked my own questions on this subject 😉

Thanks that's a great tip about having an activity organised. Although I know the parents enough to chat briefly at pick up, I would struggle to come up with small talk for 2 hours 😬!

yy to pretty much everything from the previous post. a couple of hours is plenty. we used to collect from school at 3.30, slow walk home, early dinner at 5 to break things up, and home at 6.

definitely good to have a few structured activities up your sleeve, and be prepared to light-touch supervise while the kids get used to things. after a year or two they're all much better playdate-trained, and they almost always disappear together leaving you to have a brew in peace.