[Howdy]

My fd is 7 (almost 8 yrs) and I am not sure how to determine if a family is safe for her to spend the night at.

So far she has had three children spend the night with us (one at a time), and gone to one overnight slumber party that has the whole group of her friends.

I am not a social person and have neither time nor inclination (or skills) to pursue in-depth acquaintanceships with the other children's parents.

How do parents determine whether a family is okay for their child to spend the night with? The caseworker simply said it was okay if I was acquainted with the family and comfortable with my fd staying overnight at a kid's house. How acquainted do you think I should be and how do I get that way?

I felt okay with the slumber party, figuring if the other parents were letting their kids stay it should be okay, but then last week when picking up my child from aftercare, there was a mom (of a child who I think was not invited to the slumber party) who said some negative things about the family that had the slumber party.

I don't know if the negative things are true, and they aren't even particularly relevant, except that I'd prefer my fd to associate with nice people.