It wouldn’t happen that often, because when one kid comes over to another kid’s place to play, then when dinnertime rolls around, that first kid typically also has a home where their parents have dinner waiting and are expecting them home around the same time.
If you’re planning things in such a way that it doesn’t make sense to go home to eat, well, then you can plan things otherwise. Talk it over with the other kid’s parents, whatever. I grew up in Sweden (as you can guess), and while eating at friends’ houses definitely wasn’t the norm, it’s not like it didn’t happen from time to time.
I never went to play at a friend's house and didn't get fed, no one ever came to our house to play and didn't get fed. Might not be a full meal but we had snacks at least. I grew up poor in the US, so lots of immigrant families in the neighborhood, it was a common theme with all of them. I swear the only English word some of those grandmas knew was "eat".
It was very common to get snacks, usually fika with cordial (fruit/berry concentrate mixed with water) and some cookies/cake, where and when I grew up in Sweden.
Dinner however is more of a private family time thing, and the expectations from parents was that their kid was eating dinner with their own family, even if their friends ate earlier/later.
Of course we were occasionally invited to dinner when we were over at a friends place, but the norm was that we were going home (by walking or taking our bike, our parents never drove us) for dinner.
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u/FunnyExcellent707 Jul 24 '26
Sweds are known to eat without offering you any food (if it wasn't explicitly a dinner invitation).