My son is in 5th grade - 11 years old, he has a friend "J" in his class who he's always wanting to come over or he go over to his house. All good, right?
I spoke with J's mom once on the phone around september because she brought J over to play with my son. When my son asked me, "I said sure, let me talk to his mom first". Next thing you know, he's at our house. No hello from his mom at all. A couple times since then, J has been wandering around our neighborhood apparently "waiting" for my son to get home. J doesn't live within walking distance and all I can think is - what parent would randomly drop their kid off in another neighborhood without coordinating with another parent????
Maybe I'm over-reacting and being over-protective but ummmmm, I personally would NEVER just drop my son off at one of his friends houses without knowing ANYTHING about his friends family. I mean, this really borders on the verge of disturbing for me (again, this could just be me as I will admit I'm a tad overprotective). Standard protocol for me is walking to the door if I'm dropping my son off somewhere ESPECIALLY for the first time and talking to the parent(s) getting phone numbers etc.....