So, in the spirit of putting some fresh snags on The Barbie (awful metaphor I know ) I thought we could try this. We all know people IRL who make us go 'Are you for real?' What has someone done to make you think, or say this?

NB Please keep it as unoffensive as possible, I'd like it to stay in The Barbie as I'm too much of a weakling to venture into TIO

I'll go first.

A parent invited DS and some other boys to go for a day's playdate with her son at their house. I was expected to provide him with snacks AND lunch. No special diets involved. I was very and and then

If my kids have friends staying, even if it's just from over the road, I will offer them drinks etc and if it was for the whole day, I would most certainly supply food.

Other parents responses seemed to indicate that this was the norm for this family.

That's fair. As you said the invite was for a "play date". Not a "play date, snacks and drinks"

Did you have to provide him with his own soap and toilet paper?

Sounds a bit Never heard of kids going to play on either side of the workd and taking their own food! I mean if they don't want the kid to stay for lunch why not just say its a morning or afternoon thing!

I'm with you, Rasen! I was a house-husband*** (parent of first resort to our small son) for six years, and I never heard of such a thing as asking a visitor to bring food. It was a normal part of the deal to feed visiting kids the same as we fed our own. Dear God! What's the world coming to?

***This was in the Caribbean where I live, not Australia; but I would have been shocked to have had your experience wherever I was.

My sister reckons its the height of rudenss to invote someone's kids to come over and then not to treat them as she would treat adult guests, offer them food, drinks, make them feel welcome!
Wonder what the parents are like when they have friends over........"Oh yes dahling, come for drinkies and dindins, BYO food and drink of course......."

Maybe it stems from the Aussie habit of "bring a plate" - they invite you to a morning tea that brings the office to a halt for your birthday, then tell you to bring a plate........and something ON the plate, apparently!

It is the same here.

Kids invited to a party or otherwise means the parents turn up with the 'bring a plate' thing.

We found it very odd in the early years that when folk brought a bottle of wine and a few cans to drinks and nibbles at someone's house , they guarded their booze carefully and then took what they didn't drink home with them, right down to the half can.

I refuse to do it.If I turn up with drink it becomes common property and I don't take it with me. Must be my British habits dying hard! Could also explain why I don't get many invites, they all think I'm weird!

Part of the fun as kids was seeing what you got at other people's houses I just don't get why you ask a child for lunch and tell them to bring their own. What do they do if mum forgets? let them starve i guess, punish em by making them watch the other kids eat?

Actually in Rasen's shoes, I'd send the kiddie either with a super posh huge lunch that makes everyone else envious!! And tell them they can't share but must bring home the leftovers!

My eldest had a friend like that - the mother would invite kids to sleep over and not feed them. We used to find out how many kids were going and shop accordingly on the way so no one would starve.

Can't stand it either. I do though, send my kids with sweets and crisps snacks etc when they go to their pals houses, as feeding a bunch of kids their lunch or dinner is fine, but with teenagers - they could eat you out of a house! So I do think its polite to send some snacks to share.

Don't make it an Aussie thing as it's not - it's an asshole thing

We've never experienced it - with kids or adults

No, it's not an aussie thing. The friend of my daughter's that was like it, had never had a dad, the mum was on the bones of her backside as a single mum (that's her story anyway) and both her and the daughter have eating disorders so to them it's normal. I feel sorry for the kid, she's now 17 and doesn't hang with our kids any more because she's so tiny that she looks like she's in early primary school and she's so thin that she's miserable and in pain all the time. It's awful.

I 'm not trying to make it one or the other, just I never ever experienced this idea of bringing a plate to work, or to peoples houes before i moved here. Yes sometimes we'd agree that someone would bring a dessert for dinner etc, and at work sometimes a person would bring in doughnuts if they felt like it on their birthday, but I have never been invited to -for instance-a party arranged in my honour, which I didn't want anyway -and been told to bring a plate of food for everyone. I had the last laugh, the woman who had accessed my date of birth (without permission) on the personnel records and organised it all, forgot to check the leave calendar to see who would be miles away at the time.........!!