'Is this sketchy?' Mum questions why child is 'abandoned' on playdate

"At what age do you just leave them? We could have been weirdos for all they knew!"

Image: TikTok

For something that's meant to be fun, playdates surely have a lot of politics.

Who to invite? Do you owe someone a date? What's the activity? Who's doing drop off? Who's paying for things? 

Now, a mum has raised another complexity: what's the protocol when you don't know the other parents?

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"Weird situation" on playdate 

A recent TikTok posted by Aime Sieh (@aimeesieh), detailed a “weird situation” that occurred when her son invited a friend over for a playdate.

Sieh’s son, Tatum, is six, and often gives out his mum's phone number at school so his friends' parents can tee up activities. Tatum recently gave the number to Fred, whose mum then reached out to Sieh.

The playdate was set for Saturday afternoon for the boys to play at Sieh’s backyard splash pad.

Fred's mum mentioned that his grandmother would be dropping him off. But Sieh didn't expect what happened next.

Image: TikTok

“The grandma shows up, kind of pulls up to the end of my driveway, hands me his swimsuit and is like ‘OK, we’ll see you in a couple of hours,’” she says in her clip that's been viewed 900k times.

“I don’t know these people! I have never met them before. [Grandma] hasn’t even looked inside my house to check that we’re not complete weirdos.”

The boys had a blast for hours, but no collection time had been established. When Sieh texted to see if Fred would be staying for dinner, Fred's mum replied that she'd be picking him up in 15 minutes.

“It’s just not how I expected the day to go,” Sieh concludes. “I expected her to show up with him, have a playdate for an hour, an hour and a half, and then for them to leave.

"Maybe I’m just making a big deal of it, because I’m a protective mama bear, but I wouldn’t drop my six-year-old at somebody’s house that I’ve never met before. Tell me if I’m overreacting or if that’s a little sketch.”

RELATED: ‘I can’t believe how stingy this mum was on a playdate’

"I won't drop her if I haven't met the parents"

In the more than 5000 comments, reaction was mixed.

“I have a 17-year-old daughter and won’t drop her off at friends’ houses if I haven’t at least met the parents,” wrote one viewer.

“Some parents are just different, it blows my mind,” another said.

Some noted the difference between what they do for their kids, and how they themselves were raised, such as this person: “It’s odd for a first time play date. But I honestly don’t remember my mum going to any of my play dates.”

Viewers agreed it could be about social/cultural norms, with this mum of adults saying, “I never attended a playdate in my life. Maybe it’s a generational thing?”

And perhaps a cultural one, too, as this mum explained: “It is standard here in Germany, too. I love playdates with lots of kiddos running around here, but I tend to struggle with parent small talk.”

Finally, some parents offered the actual age at which they stop meeting the parents.

"In my experience, starting around age five, the play dates become a drop off but often the parents will come in for like 15 minutes to make sure it’s all good and the kid is comfortable, and then leave," one mum shared.

And another said, "Nope my son is 11 and he’s not allowed in a house without me meeting the parents and getting to know them."

For this author, who's a Gen Xer parent to a 17-year-old, my answer is this: whether I go in to meet the strangers my son will be spending time with depends on how sick of my child I am when I drop him off. (Joking, sort of.)

Originally published as 'Is this sketchy?' Mum questions why child is 'abandoned' on playdate