Anonymous wrote:Preschool - 2 hours
Elementary - 2-3 hours

I hate people who overstay.

This is a good start, but with older elem kids I’ve found we can stretch a play date for the better part of the day with a close friend (on the days where we are randomly free from sports and birthday parties).

So for a close friend we’ll invite them over at 10 am, offer lunch around noon, then more afternoon play until 3 or 4. Usually a mix of outdoor play, basement play, and video games.

Since it sounds like OP just moved though, I’d start shorter and sweet.

I've found that things start to get weird after 2.5 hours.

Two hours

It depends on the kid.

My kids (ages 9 and 7) have some friends who they play really well with and those friends can stay for hours/all day if it's a weekend or summer break. It's pretty open and flexible and I know the parents well enough and we're all honest w/ each other too that if for some reason the playdate needs to end early or we want to extend the play date a little longer, we can just text each other and arrange that.

Then they have some friends where it's 1.5-2 hrs because that's all I can take of having that particular kid over. My son has a close friend like this. He loves this friend but the friend has ADHD and can get wild and if we let the playdate go longer than 2 hrs things start to go south.

If they've never had a particular kid over before, I'll generally invite the kid for 2 hrs mid afternoon and see how it goes. If it goes well, then next time I'll invite them for a longer period of time. If it doesn't go so well, we'll either not invite that kid back or invite them for shorter periods of time.

Anonymous wrote:elementary kids? after school until before dinner.

weekends, a few hours or more if a special activity.

This. Although my 10yo might eat dinner at their friend's and then comes home. Weekends can go the entire day when doing an activity. Also extends into sleepovers if its with a best friend.

After school it’s usually until 5/530.
Weekends anywhere from 3-5 hours depending on relationship, or if we’re going out for a dinner or something as well. Mine are 9 and 11.

International family here as well. We do 2 hour play dates. Impromptu play dates with our next door neighbors can go longer…

2 hours then you’ve extended your stay

elementary kids? after school until before dinner.

weekends, a few hours or more if a special activity.

I agree that 2 hours is good. Not everybody follows this. I've been sitting there waiting for people to go home and they won't go.

First play dates with a new friend are 2 hours.

This will give you an idea of what the dynamic is with that kid and you can adjust from there. After kids become close it’s common to just text the other family when the kid wants to be picked up (or when you’re driving them home.)