A Number of Occassions

We've done these dinners for almost two years. We've been invited back to similar events by our guests twice. That made us feel like losers. We thought back through the history of our relationship and realized we'd been invited - for a sit down dinner - 6 or 7 times in 9 years. We're not counting the family-friends (folks who are "the usual suspects" who might drop by for dinner, nor are we counting potlucks and the like). Work-related dinners don't count either. 

Swallowing our pride we started asking around. Many people said they'd had occasion to invite or be invited to a sit-down dinner 2 or 3 times in the last ten years - that was the most typical response. We had couple of professor-types who said 10-12 but that was the high mark. Many people said none, or, one (ours). Besides serving to make us feel better about such an abysmal social record it made me curious. Then I started asking people without kids ... much much higher numbers. Our study will not be truly scientific until some of those folks have kids and watch their own - quiet dinners with friends - plummet too!