Play date etiquette

[TheRedSalamander]

Reception year DS1 has had an invite to go back to a new school friends' house tomorrow after school for tea.

I'm taking him along, ds2 and I have been invited to stay too for a cuppa which is great, I'm looking forward to it.

But not sure on the etiquette around such situations! Should I take a nice pud for the boys tea, biscuits for us two mums? Or a plant or something? And what time is right to leave- school finishes at 3.15 so is a couple of hours about right?

Any advice gratefully received!

take some mice biscuits for the mums

plant a bit ott
yes 2 hours is good

are you staying for tea as well, or just a cuppa and then leaving and collecting later?

or even nice ones

If they finish at 3.30, I'd say leave at 5pm. They're always exhausted anyway and so many times I've wished we'd quit a playdate while all was still happy...

Yes, a couple of hours is about right. Biscuits not required but a nice gesture; don't bring anything more, though.

nooooono

please don't take a plant or where will it stop? Biccies OK I guess

If you are going and coming back I usually say 6pm tbh. Playdate often rolls into Brownies/Beavers/etc so that usually closes it nicely.

I assume you are not staying for tea as well?

biscuits nice - nothing else though - otherwise playdates get too expensive?

yup - same as everyone else i would stay for 15 minutes or so, make sure he is ok and then agree a time when you will pop back to get him.

Thanks for the advice everyone. In the end ds2 was at my mums (i'd forgotten she had offered to have him- dur) and I asked the other mum about what she was expecting- she said it would be nice if I wanted to stop and chat whilst they played as it was the first time ds has been over and it would be good for us two to have a natter but she would be perfectly happy if I went and came back to pick him up later. So I stayed around and we got on great too which is always nice!

I've now got another etiquette question, this time about parties but that's a whole other thread!