13yo ds having mates over

[GreenPlantPot]

Our only ds is now 13yo and due to Covid hasn’t had friends over to visit for a long time. He’s grown up a lot during this time , made new friends who I’ve never met and I need help!

He wants to have his mates round tomorrow evening to watch the football. Do I say “you can have x number of friends”? Where will they watch it - living room or bedroom? Should I provide food? I haven’t had anyone in the house since pre Covid so need to do some tidying as well!

Any tips from people would be fab. I am finding it difficult realising that ds isn’t an 11yo boy any more - but a 13yo teenager with a moustache!

Definitely get the plainer pizzas, can't go wrong then, and do not call the drink, "fizzy", or act like in it's anyway a treat, or he'll actually kill you in your sleep
I've no idea of the timings, but I'd say 11?
Obviously if otber parents want to pick up earlier that's fine.
You'll get big brownie points for this!

@GreenPlantPot

I sound useless don’t I! I just don’t know what to expect at all. And I don’t think my ds knows either. Normally things like this develop gradually but as it’s not happened for 18 months we’ve missed a huge chunk of him growing up.

Maybe I need to rephrase my question. If your 13yo ds had friends over, how would the evening go? The food question on another thread was useful, but do you just leave them to it for the whole evening?

I always left mine to it when they had friends over which was often. I made sure there was plenty to eat and drink.

Great to encourage friends around and you can't go wrong with this as they have ready entertainment with the match. It's perfect! Don't interfere ..go into the room except to deliver pizzas but ds may collect those from kitchen. Leave drinks on counter and let ds sort it. Too much Mum is a complete no! no! Remember they may be noisy..broken voices..especially if England are doing well but ignore..its all part of the fun.
He will have a lovely night

You lot are fab - thank you! Good point about the noise. All voices have broken I think which makes it even more different than year 6!

If there's any issues that aren't emergencies, text your DS, do not go into the room.
Obviously tell him in advance he must reply to texts.

If you live in England then you're kind of limited in numbers at the moment, to (6- however many people there are in your household). We're a family if 4 so DCs can only have 2 friends over at the moment (and only 1 DC can have friends over at a time). Unless some of the rest of us go out of course.