Mine would play on his phone and text friends if he didn’t know other kids. He’d ask us every 20 min or so how much longer we had to stay. We would likely leave the kids at home unless they knew other kids there. Then they would still be on their phones or go hang out outside. They don’t really care how cold it is and would find something to do out there.

We just went to a party like this last weekend. 50ish adults and 25 or so kids ages 12-18 with a couple of younger. Kids alternated between: watching movie in the basement, eating a ton of junk food (chips/etc that were out), playing on their phones (sometimes in solitary and sometimes with each other), bugging their parents. Also, the host has done a game (open a present with oven mitts or the like) for years so all the kids expect it and are willing to play (in hopes of winning the Starbucks gift card.) That kept everyone going for about 3 hrs and then people started getting whiny to go home.

I wouldn't have your laptop accessible.

Put board games in the room where you want them to watch movies. Put snacks in there too. Tell your kids to handle the kid-guests, and to come get you if they can't handle someone.

They are 12-16 they will be on their phones.

Anonymous wrote:No unsupervised kids in bedrooms upstairs. That’s a recipe for disaster.

Ridiculous. There are going to be a lot of adults present and it seems like OP's house is not that large.

I would put on a funny movie and have board games out and maybe tidy up one of the kids' room if they need more room to spread out.

No unsupervised kids in bedrooms upstairs. That’s a recipe for disaster.

I wouldn't open my kids' bedrooms to guests, nor would my kids be OK with that. They are fine wondering around and if you have a separate room for a holiday movie, great.

We're having a holiday open house and more people are coming than I expected. We have room for the 50 or so people to stand around and chat, but aren't sure what to do about the kids. About half the attendees are kids (most 12-16). Will they be okay in TV room, if we have laptop hooked up to TV to watch some things? We don't have a finished basement. Can they just stand around and chat like the adults? Our own kids are quiet, and would be fine just sitting quietly or chatting if we were at someone else's house. I don't go to enough of these things in small houses. Do you think we need to open up the kids rooms upstairs? If so, what would they do there? Board games?