Dinner Parties with Kids

Lately I've heard a lot about people hosting dinner parties or going to dinner parties, or people getting together to go out to eat. If you are one of the people that host a dinner party, do you have kids? I hope you said yes, and then my next question, can you tell me how you make this work?

When my husband and I first got married, we did a mixture of all three - we hosted, we went to our friends houses, and we'd go out. After our son was born, we limited all three, in part because if those friends didn't have kids, it was hard to explain that we may need to eat as fast as humanly possible in order to leave if he screamed or had a meltdown. Bedtime routines overtook our social life. I'm not complaining at all - I love bedtime routines and frankly I'm tired and want to unwind when the kids go to bed. But I sometimes miss having friends over for dinner. (I'm not talking friends that are family; that doesn't count.)

I started thinking about what I would even make if we invited friends over…and you know what - that's a little scary. I know my family likes certain things I make, but would other people? And do you tell them what you're making ahead of time so they can politely say that don't want to attend if they hate your suggestion? 

Then I saw that people are creating dinner/supper clubs and through email a theme is determined and everyone discusses which dish they will bring that works for the dinner. I actually really liked the sound of this but I believe you'd need a lot of people and with a bunch of preschoolers and babies…well I'm not sure that works well for an inside dinner. It is still winter. 

I'm beyond interested in what you have experienced or what you plan with your friends. Please post comments to tell me about your parties. Thanks!