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I imagine this scenario happens quite often: Your child invites his or her friend to a movie with your family and when it comes time to pay for the movie at the theater, you pay. That’s how it should be and that’s how I’ve always experienced it. However, the problem occurs when this situation happens all the time and you’re the one footing the bill. At this point it’s not about the money, even though it’s the driver, but it’s about the principle of the matter

The recommendation of Jeanne Fleming, PH.D., and Leonard Schwarz is that if you invite someone to something, especially a child, then you should be expected to pay (I doubt this point is one of contention). However, a parent should be teaching their child that nothing in life is free and that constantly accepting the generosity of others is a bad situation. Children learn as they grow and if they may grow accustomed to these freebies and see them as normal or, at the worst, come to find ways to score free stuff.

If the other parents know about, I would hope they’d pick up on the frequency or “unfairness” and try to alleviate it: send their kid over with some money, decline, etc. If they don’t, stop inviting them.

via CNNMoney ^[3].