Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop being such a ninny, honestly.

No one can actually come into your home without your express permission. You are ALLOWING them to "invite themselves over." If you don't want them over, say, "That's not going to work for us today." Or "I'm not up for hosting today; would you be willing to take a turn?"

If you want them to leave after two hours, open your mouth and say, "Yes, we can do a play date today, but only from 3 to 5. We'll have to say goodbye right at 5, as we have other plans."

Life isn't hard when you're not afraid of your own shadow.

I imagine you have few friends. No need to name call.

Don't act like a ninny, won't call you a ninny.

How about you speak up, Op?

How about you -actually- say, "I have something I need to do at 3:00 pm, so we'll have to wrap it up before then"

And then show them to the door at 2:50

If these are your friends, there is no reason you can't be honest and say "Love to have you over for a bit but I have a ton to get done, so only have a couple of hours". If still hanging around after you've told them that - gentle reminder is needed that "as much as I'd rather hang out - I'll be mad at myself later. Need to get a few things done. Or have other plans. Or whatever!" And begin cleaning up.

10 mins before you want the playdate to be over, tell everyone you have to wrap the playdates up. Be direct and do it every time.

Anonymous wrote:Stop being such a ninny, honestly.

No one can actually come into your home without your express permission. You are ALLOWING them to "invite themselves over." If you don't want them over, say, "That's not going to work for us today." Or "I'm not up for hosting today; would you be willing to take a turn?"

If you want them to leave after two hours, open your mouth and say, "Yes, we can do a play date today, but only from 3 to 5. We'll have to say goodbye right at 5, as we have other plans."

Life isn't hard when you're not afraid of your own shadow.

I imagine you have few friends. No need to name call.

Plan play dates so they end at lunch, nap or dinner time. Tell them in advance that you have to leave the house at x time or need to focus on getting kids down for nap.

Anonymous wrote:You sound like a huge pushover. You let people invite themselves over and then worry about being rude TO THEM when you want them to leave.

Get a spine.

Seriously, why so hateful?

At the 1:45 mark, direct the kids to start cleaning up because the play date will have to end, you have other obligations. Or tell the parents upfront, we’d love to get together, but 2 hours is all we can spare.

You sound like a huge pushover. You let people invite themselves over and then worry about being rude TO THEM when you want them to leave.

Get a spine.

Just direct your child to say thanks for coming over and start the clean up process with your child which should signal the end of the play date.

This is why meeting up out of the house at a park is so great. Want to meet at the park at 11? There is a sandwich place around the corner from x park so we could grab lunch around 12/12:30 and then head home.

Why don't you just say " We'd live to get together for a playdate, hows does 10-12 sound?"

You could even say youve got a ton of stuf to do but youd love to see them for a couple of hours.

Stop being such a ninny, honestly.

No one can actually come into your home without your express permission. You are ALLOWING them to "invite themselves over." If you don't want them over, say, "That's not going to work for us today." Or "I'm not up for hosting today; would you be willing to take a turn?"

If you want them to leave after two hours, open your mouth and say, "Yes, we can do a play date today, but only from 3 to 5. We'll have to say goodbye right at 5, as we have other plans."

Life isn't hard when you're not afraid of your own shadow.

Plan something for the time you want an excuse and then tell them that you need to x. Not a lie if you make it true. Or just say something like, this has been great but I really need to start making dinner. Let’s get together again soon.

DC is still at a young age where the parent wants to stay during a playdate.

We have friends who tend to invite themselves over when they want to get together. While I'm happy to have them over and am incredibly grateful to have these friends, I wish I could find ways to limit the amount of time they stay. I'm an introvert and I get tired entertaining a parent for more than 2 hours. They usually end up staying 3-4 hours and that's just too long for me to have one on one time with a person while also tending to my other children. I also just have a ton of stuff to get done on the weekends and it gets hard to entertain for that long.

I don't want to get to a point where I'm lying or avoiding them all together to get out of long playdates. What's a nice way to ask them not to stay too long or to say we can't play past a certain time?