The same holds true where there are young children. Some people had better not be invited to spend the night because they will mind being waked at the crack of dawn by piping voices or wails and parental "shushes." But if your friends have children or if you're young and your friends are too, they will probably not be put out by such inconveniences, and the pleasure of your com­pany will more than outweigh any discomfort.

Most of us are not equipped to have more than two week-end guests at a time. As a general rule, then, it's far better to plan for the comfort of a few than to overcrowd and make nobody happy.

material comforts
If there are older people whom you'd like to have for house guests but your quarters are small and crowded, I think you should give seri­ous thought to entertaining them in some other way. The older one gets, the more he is likely to cling to such comforts as quiet and privacy. Other material comforts, by comparison, are insignificant. If you have a guest room removed from the household noises with a bath of its own, you are perfectly equipped to entertain anyone.

children-entertaining their friends
If you are parents, you will entertain for children. There is no alter­native, and nobody should want one. However, there are choices about which children you entertain and rules to guide you.

your children as hosts
In the first place, it's your children who are entertaining. What help you give will be determined by your good judgment. Learning by ex­ample and practice how to be thoughtful of their friends at parties is as important a part of their background as formal schooling. It is the foundation of good manners in the truest sense, the manners which grow out of a warm-hearted delight in sharing with others. You will be a wise mother too if you take advice from your children about the kind of party they'd like to give, about food and games. Unless you're Peter Pan, you have forgotten, except vaguely, what you liked to do at a given age. What you now think would be fun to do if you were six, or ten, or sixteen is almost unquestionably not what your six, or ten, or sixteen-year-old would like to do. Draw out from your children all the ideas you can if, for instance, they want to have an overnight guest, a birth­day party, or a school friend for lunch and the afternoon. Make gentle, tactful suggestions, where you can, but let the real hosts be the final arbiters. If you do, you will find your home a popular gathering place for children of any age.