Do not come on time and bring what you are asked for.
Homemade dining with family or friends is still very popular, but the format has now become much less formal. Few people display different glasses for different types of drinks or seat their guests so that they have something to talk about. Nevertheless, certain rules and restrictions have been preserved, and it does not hurt to know them in order to be known as an excellent hostess or a wonderful guest who is always welcome.
1. Confirmation
Although we admire modern morals, free from bourgeois conventions, nevertheless, if someone invites you to visit, promptly inform whether you accept or decline the invitation. Do not under any circumstances begin to pry who else is invited, as if you are going to come to meet these guests, and not with the hosts.
2. Punctuality
If you are invited to come at 7.30:7.30 pm, then the last thing that is expected of you is that you will arrive at exactly 15:XNUMX pm. The owners can still be in the shower or in the nearest supermarket, looking for capers throughout the house. Give them XNUMX minutes of time. This will not be considered late, but tactfulness. But keep a reasonable time frame: you shouldn’t come an hour late either.
3. Cooking
Preparing meals for guests is a lot of stress, which you should not in any way demonstrate, otherwise your anxiety will set an unnecessary tone for the entire evening. Hint: If you can’t tell the difference between crème brulee and ratatouille, now is not the time to experiment with either. Don’t set yourself too high a bar. In principle, food itself is not particularly important. But the guests will remember how much they had fun. Treats are just an excuse for communication, so it is better to choose simpler dishes, but in which you are definitely strong.
4. Presents
Do not overload your hosts with unnecessary work: do not give flowers for which you need a special vase, wine that needs to be poured into a decanter, or dessert that needs to be thawed.
5. Help in the kitchen
There are people who always dangle underfoot in the kitchen, although you have already pushed them a hundred times trying to get to the stove or refrigerator. Do not invite them next year, as well as those who offer to help and then disappear. Cooking advice is only worthwhile if asked to do so.
6. Joint participation
If everyone is involved in organizing a party and you are asked to bring a snack or dessert, then no one will count how much you will spend on it. This is not a competition in finances or in baking ability, but a quiet evening in the company of your loved ones who will not judge your product too harshly. The most important thing is to bring enough food for everyone.
7. Feeding children
For children, food is just a break from their attempts to destroy your home. Give them cheap defrosted pizza and chips. Everything else is a waste of food. If they don’t like food, that’s okay, no one will die of hunger. Don’t give them adult meals they never enjoy.
8. Music
Party is not the best time to experience your love of jazz or Norwegian black metal with your guests. Find a sweet spot: a pleasant melody that drowns out the sounds made when eating food, but not so interesting that everyone’s attention is riveted to it.
9. Simplicity
Forget fish knives and 12-person sets. Modern parties have simplified to such an extent that if the number of guests exceeds six, then everyone resigns to the fact that someone will have to resignedly sit on a stool. The lack of ceremony makes life a lot easier. Put paper towels on the table, the age of napkins is over.
10. Gadgets
It’s 2018, so moderate phone use at the desk is okay. However, do not shoot everything in someone else’s house for photos on social networks and do not post pictures of the treat on Instagram, unless you know for sure that the owners are not against such publicity.
11. Time to go home
Usually, if the party starts at 2pm on Sunday, the hosts would like to be alone with the cleaning around 8pm. A midweek dinner should not end at 3 a.m. singing in karaoke. Saturday night is another matter, but if your hostess washes the children, cleans the kitchen, and the owner sleeps on the couch, then forget about the road to the road and go back.
12. Thanks
As you leave, thank the hosts and write them a couple of compliments the next day. They deserve it.
All people are divided into those who love to cook and receive guests, and those who would never even think of it. Do not get hung up on this and do not demand a return invitation. The treat should be from a pure heart. Otherwise, an unpleasant aftertaste will remain from it.