The hangout house?
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Anonymous
| We have social elementary school kids and our house is a block from school. I’d love for our house to become the hangout house for them and their friends, but what age would that start happening? When did your kids start regularly going to other kid’s homes without it being orchestrated by you and their parents? |
Anonymous
| At the age when kids don't have their parents take them everywhere or arrange their social lives. |
Anonymous
| 1st or 2nd grade. We have a lot of same age kids in the neighborhood so they could run freely without parents having to arrange something. Kids would knock, I'd welcome them in. Had lots of snacks, stuff to play with, and a high tolerance for chaos. Now in middle school and with changing friend groups, not quite as busy but friends here a few couple times a week. |
Anonymous
The hangout house is the one where the parents aren’t around. So unless you both work full time, this is an unlikely scenario. |
Anonymous
100% this. |
Anonymous
That’s post college for most parents these days |
Anonymous
Not entirely true. I work from home and am usually up in my bedroom or in my office -- we have a huge family room and living room, so our house always ends up as the hangout house after school and on weekends. We have an open door policy, I always keep my fridge and pantry very well stocked with snacks, fruit, frozen pizzas and drinks, we have a 70" TV in the family room and a 60" in the living room, my son has all of his gaming systems & VR goggles in the family room, they have a ton of games like cards against humanity and the card game werewolf, they can make a much noise as they want and it won't bother us, we have a fire pit out back for smores making and the biggest incentive... we make ourselves scarce and allow them their fun time without being overbearing (although, on weekends, I'll pop into the kitchen to grab a drink or something, and my 16 year old son's friends will come up and hug me and say things like "wanna come hang out, momma?" and of course I know they're only saying this because they know I never will, but it's sweet). OP, make your house comfortable, homey, and a place where kids can feel safe and relax... but most of all, make yourself scarce and they'll come flocking! |
Anonymous
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Our house is the hangout house. It started about 4th grade - kids are now in 9th. I work in my home office space adjacent to our family room so my presence doesn’t seem to have made a difference. I inadvertently overhear a lot of conversations that is quite entertaining. We do tend to have a selection of snacks that are not as healthy as some of the friends that come over get at their homes so I think that is a big draw. We also have a street basketball hoop and Xbox set up. These are all kids who live in the neighborhood and are within either biking or walking distance to their houses and the school. There aren’t many kids who come over who take the school bus to farther away neighborhoods. I think that makes a difference.
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Anonymous
| The elementary and middle school kids in our neighborhood mostly hang out outside, which is great. Big games of capture the flag, basketball, soccer, what have you. Especially if you are close to the elementary school, you can foster this. They have a blast. No screens and less eating of junk food. |
Anonymous
Truly. This isn’t the ‘90s. It is far less common now than when we were kids for kids to spontaneously gather at someone’s house and just hang out Tweens on up have sports, music lessons, and/or homework after school. |
Anonymous
| Have good snacks and stay out of their way. If you constantly barge in and do annoying parent things like asking questions, they will avoid your house. |
Anonymous
| There's something weird about an adult who wants their house to be a hangout house. |
Anonymous
I want this because I would much rather my teens be in our home than one where I don’t know what they’re doing or have access to. We have video gaming, TV, outdoor ping pong table, air hockey, workout room, snacks, etc. Our house is not huge but we’ve done what we can, including to give kids their own space, and it’s worked pretty well. |
Anonymous
| My friends and I lived very close to each other growing up, it was small group. But, our parents always welcomed us to hang out all the time. Each house had different things to entertain us. We had a blast, no need to constantly go out to have fun and definitely no need for trouble |
Anonymous
We both work at home and ours became the hang out house when my oldest was 14. They are in college and it still is the place to go when they come home. But these aren't kids who party or drink or feel they have anything to hide, so they don't really care if we are here or not [cue the "you are naive if you think your kids aren't drinking and doing drugs" posters]. |