Other peoples kids!

*Louise*

My two (6 and 8) aren't allowed to wander too far, but their friends are so it's inevitable that they end up here but that way I know they are safe, and I can keep an eye on them all, because at their ages, kids tend to fall out for the silliest little thing.

savingmummy

(DD8yrs DS6yrs) I haven't had sleepovers as yet, and I don`t have children round either.


I have that to come :j

Lily_rose_2

We're the same in regards to DS1 & 2. With DD she tends to play out or go to her friends house across the road, although they do come into ours aswell. It gets on my nerves at times, but I like the fact that their friends feel comfortable enough to spend time with us!

You do find out much more about their friendships, what they're upto etc if you're in regular contact with their friends;)

GobbledyGook

We've just moved house (about 15 minutes away) so it's quiet at the moment, but I hope it gets back to being how it used to be. There were always other children in and around our house.

I liked it like that and I hope it can continue. My Grandparents were like that and it was amazing how much they knew/picked up on just from being the ones around us the most.

itsanne

Encourage it! There'll come a time when you'll be glad they're at yours because you'll know who they're with and what they're up to. And when they're older again they'll still bring their friends round .

Bennifred

And if you're really lucky the friends will still visit when they're all grown up and your own children aren't actually there! :j

itsanne

Bennifred wrote: »

And if you're really lucky the friends will still visit when they're all grown up and your own children aren't actually there! :j

Yup! We get that too .

Lily-Rose_3

This happened a lot when my daughter was younger (she is now 19,) and in some ways it was OK as she is an only child, we lived in a cul de sac with few children, and it was good company for her.

However, I did find many of the mums taking advantage of our good nature, by leaving their kids with us for hours on end, sometimes all day Saturday and/or Sunday, and often expecting us to take them back home! Sometimes they lived 20-25 minutes walk away - across the big sink estate, and when I contacted the mum at the end of the day (sometimes when it was dark,) to say 'can you come and get your child,' she would often just say 'just let her walk,' and this is when they were about 8 or 9! No way was I having THAT on my conscience: you can bet that if something had happened to that child, that *I* would have been the one blamed.

On occasions, we would take the child home, and the parents wouldn't be in! So we'd have to take them back home, and then take them back again later. One woman even tried to offload her kids onto us on new year's eve, acting quite shirty and annoyed that we wanted her to come and get her kids at 7pm because we were going out!

The kids ate us out of house and home, and the parents kept saying that their kids like it at ours because it's quiet compared to their home with 3 or 4 plus siblings. All they wanted to do was offload them, because it saved THEM bothering with them! Made me wonder why some people had kids!

So glad my daughter is grown now and we don't have to tolerate this any longer. I got sick to death of these mums treating me like an unpaid childminder, and like I and my husband (and daughter) had no life!

victory

Bennifred wrote: »

And if you're really lucky the friends will still visit when they're all grown up and your own children aren't actually there! :j

We get that too, ex girlfriend popped by the other day and one of my DS best friends was here yesterday, DS not here:D it is a fab way of keeping in touch and keeping on their wave length:D

My other DS is 14 and he has loads of friends over for sleep overs and vice versa, you get to hear all about what they are doing, minecraft, the latest, it's all good:D

FatVonD

During the Easter break we had an extra teenager or two most nights. DH hates it though, like many others, I like the opportunity to suss out who DS is mixing with and the chance to eavesdrop a little on what's going on.

It's a bit annoying having to find a dressing gown to go to the bathroom in the morning and having to lock the bathroom door (one of DS's friends has had the dubious delight of bumping into me half naked on the way to the loo and walking in on DH in the bath, the poor boy is probably scarred for life :eek: ) but I'd rather that and know where he is and that he had company getting home.