How often do you entertain??

[Anonymous]

Twice a week, generally. Sometimes once a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always wonder about this when I read the Sunday routine feature in the nytimes. All those people claim to have friends over for dinner every single sunday! I’m always like who really entertains that often...? But I guess some people do? My questions are: don’t you get stressed by all the cleaning, planning, and preparing involved? And when do your friends have a chance to reciprocate if you’re hosting that often? And how do you even gather that many people every week? Sometimes it seems like scheduling even one other couple/family to come over is so difficult.

We have people over every Sunday. We also have cleaning people over every Monday (to clean up from the weekend) and every Thursday (to clean for the weekend).

Sometimes we just have two or three families over - it's not a ton of people. So maybe we go to brunch with friends Sunday morning, then go sailing, then have people back to our house for dinner. If you entertain regularly, it's not difficult to plan the food and drinks - we have groceries delivered when the nanny is there to receive them.

[Anonymous]

Usually once a week - we're Jewish so we do Friday night dinner and lunch on Saturday, usually we invite friends for one of those and sometimes both, or we go to friends for one of them. We love it - both DH and I work full time so it takes planning to get it all done, but I love cooking and love making the meals. I do have a cleaner regularly so my house is usually in OK shape, but I never worry too much about this - there will be tons of kids playing and having fun so even if it started tidy it won't be by the end of the visit.

[Anonymous]

If you are a working Mom and getting burnt out, entertaining is not a good idea. But it IS really important to see your friends every weekend with a “slow” weekend sprinkled in here or there.

[Anonymous]

2-3 times per year. Wish we could do it more often, but kids are tiny and we're busy, so this is what we end up managing...

[Anonymous]

We always have a big 4th of July and Christmas party. During the summer we regularly have friends over to swim and bbq- these are much more laid back and not as much stress as a more formal party. We have game night a few times a year with couples and we have our parents over a lot.

I keep my house stocked in things I don’t drink. Basic beer, soda, etc so there are always some staples that other people enjoy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have weekly dinners with my parents. For friends, we mostly do brunches these days. Way easier!!! Some months, we’ll host three, or even four brunches. And I honestly don’t mind.

What do you serve for brunch?

I'm not the pp but we had friends for a sort of impromptu brunch this sunday (texted on saturday) so we were trying to figure out how to keep it simple - it was very millenial but we did a yogurt bar and avocado toast bar sort of thing and it was SO easy and made me think how we could do this pretty often if we keep it this simple. No cooking at all, we just bought a couple different types of yogurt, nuts, fruit, we toasted some coconut, put avocados cream cheese and a fresh baguette out. I feel like this sounds like more work then it was, since it was no cooking it felt easy. Dishes could all just go in the dishwasher after.

But if you want to cook and keep it simple I think you could do eggs, bacon, and some hashbrowns and people will be more than happy. Offer some salsa and tortillas if you want to and people can make their own breakfast tacos. We've done this before and it's been fairly easy. Or you could just grab bagels, have cream cheese and lox available.

We've found the more casual we keep it the more likely we are to do it more and people seem to feel more comfortable actually now that we've toned it down and keep it casual. Meaning more time with our friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have weekly dinners with my parents. For friends, we mostly do brunches these days. Way easier!!! Some months, we’ll host three, or even four brunches. And I honestly don’t mind.

What do you serve for brunch?

I'm not the pp but we had friends for a sort of impromptu brunch this sunday (texted on saturday) so we were trying to figure out how to keep it simple - it was very millenial but we did a yogurt bar and avocado toast bar sort of thing and it was SO easy and made me think how we could do this pretty often if we keep it this simple. No cooking at all, we just bought a couple different types of yogurt, nuts, fruit, we toasted some coconut, put avocados cream cheese and a fresh baguette out. I feel like this sounds like more work then it was, since it was no cooking it felt easy. Dishes could all just go in the dishwasher after.

But if you want to cook and keep it simple I think you could do eggs, bacon, and some hashbrowns and people will be more than happy. Offer some salsa and tortillas if you want to and people can make their own breakfast tacos. We've done this before and it's been fairly easy. Or you could just grab bagels, have cream cheese and lox available.

We've found the more casual we keep it the more likely we are to do it more and people seem to feel more comfortable actually now that we've toned it down and keep it casual. Meaning more time with our friends.

We, too, have weekly dinners with my parents and mostly invite friends for brunch. I can do the brunch in my sleep:
- fresh bagels
- cream cheese
- scrambled eggs
- fruit
Optional items:
- Lox
- Grilled sausage
-

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kids are 4 and 6 and we invite friends over for brunch or dinner and a playdate 1-2 times per month. For brunch, I serve bagels/cream cheese, muffins, a breakfast casserole, fruit salad, and a dessert. For dinner I usually serve: lasagna, salad, vegetable, cheese/crackers, and dessert. I like the fact that having people over gets me to deep clean my house regularly. I usually invite people over on a Sunday for brunch/dinner so I have all day Saturday to clean and shop. It is expensive, I usually spend at least $75 for all the food, etc.

Ditto! My kids are 3 & 5. My brunch menu is identical! I call it my formula because it’s easy to throw together even at short notice.
We’re Indian, so for dinner I usually do Indian food (mildly spiced) since most people seem to love it but are put off by the long ingredient list to try cooking it at home.

[Anonymous]

Casual heavy apps and drinks in the deck - one - two times a month. Full in dinners - 4 times a year for the holidays.

Kids are young elementary age.