Hosted a playdate. Kid repeatedly asked dd to open one of her new bday gifts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems normal. You, on the other hand, don't know how to manage children.

+1

+2

DCUM, I invited a kid over for a playdate with my child and he repeatedly tried to play with my child. How angry should I be??

[Anonymous]

Be mad OP be very mad

[Anonymous]

isn't it kind of the adult equivalent of having people over for dinner, putting food and drinks out, and then having guests go through the fridge and open something else? OP, you can be annoyed because this is annoying. Kids should know that they get told no sometime. I do try to put stuff away that I don't want the kids to play with or use. Maybe OP needed space for the new toy or was thinking of returning it.

[Anonymous]

JFC you Bethesda moms need to develop some grit.

I honestly cannot understand what gets you pansies so worked up about every single thing a child does. This is what happens when you grow up going to private school and Paris and the Alps and know nothing else. Oh my god! This other child wants to open up a toy! And eat! The horror!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds normal to me. After she asked once I would have put the gift away. Kids might be uncomfortable with new foods.

I am getting so tired of the responses justifying all children’s bad behavior. So they ate four snacks but “might be uncomfortable with new foods”? Uh, ok.

God forbid you ever meet an autistic child. Your head would probably explode.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds normal to me. After she asked once I would have put the gift away. Kids might be uncomfortable with new foods.

I am getting so tired of the responses justifying all children’s bad behavior. So they ate four snacks but “might be uncomfortable with new foods”? Uh, ok.

God forbid you ever meet an autistic child. Your head would probably explode.

If the kid's autism prevents them from following normal social cues during a playdate perhaps they aren't ready for playdates.

But in all likelihood, this kid is not autistic and you all just want to continue to make excuses for bad behavior. OP made ONE post on a parenting forum. You act like she called the kid the r-word and beat her with a stick every time she asked for the toy.

[Anonymous]

Hmm I don’t think it is THAT rude to open a gift. I know I have hosted play dates after child’s birthday and they have opened and played with a new board game or craft. Can’t remember if it was the guest or my child that wanted to open.

Hungry kids don’t bother me. Then again, I always offer food to my guests. I know my child is always starving after school so if one of my children went to a play date after school, they would be hungry. They eat after school and then an early dinner.

[Anonymous]

Just curious- are you trying to save the gift? Regift?

I don’t think the toy should be out. A young child would want to play with it.

[Anonymous]

Agree with the PPs. Plenty of people open a new toy like a game or craft at a playdate, because it's nice to explore it with a friend. So the visiting kid may not have initially known it being being "saved." Anyway they kept asking, it's not like they tore it open and broke it. Next time put the toy away (or at least after the first time a kid asks).

I always offer food/snacks but am not a short order cook. "This is what I have" / "this is what we can have right now" is what I say to repeated snack requests

I dont get how OP is so.worked up she's posting here and writing these crazy.emotional replies.

[Anonymous]

OP said in first post that their kid had not gotten around to opening the controversial gift. So it's kid's gift and their choice. Maybe they were saving it for later.

Agree that putting it out of sight would have been a way to hopefully reinforce that it isn't going to be played with.

All the chastisements about visitor wanted to play are just bs.

Team Op.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the PPs. Plenty of people open a new toy like a game or craft at a playdate, because it's nice to explore it with a friend. So the visiting kid may not have initially known it being being "saved." Anyway they kept asking, it's not like they tore it open and broke it. Next time put the toy away (or at least after the first time a kid asks).

I always offer food/snacks but am not a short order cook. "This is what I have" / "this is what we can have right now" is what I say to repeated snack requests

I dont get how OP is so.worked up she's posting here and writing these crazy.emotional replies.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP said in first post that their kid had not gotten around to opening the controversial gift. So it's kid's gift and their choice. Maybe they were saving it for later.

Agree that putting it out of sight would have been a way to hopefully reinforce that it isn't going to be played with.

All the chastisements about visitor wanted to play are just bs.

Team Op.

It’s ok to say no, but why the drama?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP said in first post that their kid had not gotten around to opening the controversial gift. So it's kid's gift and their choice. Maybe they were saving it for later.

Agree that putting it out of sight would have been a way to hopefully reinforce that it isn't going to be played with.

All the chastisements about visitor wanted to play are just bs.

Team Op.

It’s ok to say no, but why the drama?

Yeah, like technically it's a bit rude to keep asking once a host says no - for snacks or the toy. But they are kids, and they are works in progress. I highly doubt the adult version of this boy will be doing this at cocktail parties. If you have such low tolerance for the little behaviors like these that need teaching and refinement then you will have no kids left to invite over for your kids to play with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds normal to me. After she asked once I would have put the gift away. Kids might be uncomfortable with new foods.

I am getting so tired of the responses justifying all children’s bad behavior. So they ate four snacks but “might be uncomfortable with new foods”? Uh, ok.

God forbid you ever meet an autistic child. Your head would probably explode.

If the kid's autism prevents them from following normal social cues during a playdate perhaps they aren't ready for playdates.

But in all likelihood, this kid is not autistic and you all just want to continue to make excuses for bad behavior. OP made ONE post on a parenting forum. You act like she called the kid the r-word and beat her with a stick every time she asked for the toy.

NP. Your commentary about autism is pretty funny. But in any case, I think the issue here is that OP is way overreacting to something that seems like a fairly minor annoyance. I would not even categorize this as bad behavior. Just annoying. Also as people have repeatedly pointed out, OP could easily have fixed the problem by not displaying the birthday gift somewhere that the kid kept seeing it. Would it be awesome if the kid just took no for an answer the first time? Sure. But it's not OP's kid and sometimes kids do weird or annoying things. You just learn to adapt.

[Anonymous]

Literally OP's post said "am I overreacting." Well most posters think that yes, she is overreacting.

I think part of this is just that I've hosted enough playdates to know sometimes they are annoying and the kids are annoying. Some playdates are so easy and effortless, and other times the kids don't seem to play well together or the other kid complains or whatever. I like to think my kid is never annoying at other people's houses but also... maybe she is? No one has ever said anything but maybe internally they were like "omg this kid is on my last nerve."

OP seems to want us all to agree that this is just a particularly terrible kid and she is justified in hating him or something, and I'm sorry but this is just an outsider amount of upset with a child. Sometimes kids are annoying! Get over it!