Going Over For Dinner Etiquette

[MDWCT2018]

This is something that came up in just a chat with some friends and I'm really interested to find out what everyone thinks about it. Basically one of my work colleagues was telling us about how she had met an old school friend from decades ago in M&S by chance. They exchanged pleasantries and contact details. This friend then invited my work colleague and her family i.e. husband and two children over for dinner. The two children were 10 and 13 at the time. The friend also had two teenagers of her own. What was bizarre however was that when they went over for dinner it was only the grown-ups that ate i.e. my work colleague and her husband and their host friend and her husband. They didn't feed the kids. My work colleague said that she then try to make excuses to leave early and when questioned why she said it's because her children hadn't eaten and they're probably starving to which this host-friend said 'why haven't they eaten, did you not feed them before you came'?!! I am absolutely baffled to hear this. I feel like when you are invited over for dinner as a family it would mean that the entire family would eat unless of course you have very young kids in which case they would need to eat much earlier but even then you would still offer them something just out of basic hospitality? I don't think I've ever come across anyone as tight-fisted/ mean as this or is this socially acceptable/normal dinner etiquette? Do you feed your young /teenager children before you go to dinner at someone else's house?

PS this is an event that happened pre-Covid circa 2019 but has come up in one of our recent zoom happy hour gossip fests he he he ;)

[tomus42]

It's weird. If you invite a family to dinner you should provide food for them all.

They probably have some system themselves where they feed their children in the afternoon and eat on their own later, and being weirdos they assume everyone else must do the same.

[naomi24]

Invite them back and show them how it should be done.

[zylaphone]

Ridiculous, If you invite a family to dinner you should provide food for them all.

[piggynose]

This wouldn´t happened to me when i was a kid nor to some people i know, why? My mother for example wouldve reminded the host that i had a nut allergy or that my sister doesnt eat meat. So unless the host was oblivious then this problem wouldnt have occured.