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It depends on your situation: the age of your child, their personality, their experiences and adaptability. There will also be practical considerations: how well are you coping? Does your family live down the road or in another country?

My children are extroverted and very social and we have no family in this country. We kept every day the same for the first month and kept things quiet for a long time (many months). However, we did have friends and their two children over for an afternoon about 3 weeks after placement. We felt it wasn't ideal but that the children would be able to cope (which they did) and we knew that it would be many years until we would be able to see these friends again. My children met various family members after about 3-5 months with us. By that time we knew pretty much every family in our neighbourhood and had met several of our friends though. Had my family lived closer by they would have met the children much earlier.

Most times we would meet new people in a park right in front of our house, so we were in a familiar environment and the kids could spend time with us if they wanted and run off if they needed some space. The first time we went to someone else's house was about 3 months in and my children were quite nervous about it.

I would not worry too much about it. Once your child is placed with you, you will know what is manageable for them.

Hmmm ... whilst I don’t necessarily advocate extended visits to/from family members I also wouldn’t advocate keeping close family away either. And yes I know that’s contrary to what most social workers will say but they’re not living it! You, as a parent, will need support just like any new parent will. We don’t expect grandparents to be kept away from newborn birth children and knackered new parents. You’re going to need support in exactly the same way. And you’re going to want your child to have a positive relationship with its grandparents, cousins, aunts/uncles etc.

I get the reasoning behind it but as long as all parties are sensible and family know that YOU are the caregivers then I don’t see an issue.

And frankly when you have child number 2 and 3, as we did, it’s not possible anyway! Introductions, school runs etc meant that family had to get involved pretty quickly and my three have good, positive relationships with extended family. It did them no harm.

Ground rules first and be sensible but theory is all well and good until you’re in the middle of it!

Like Donatella we largely made up our own minds. We had two older teenage daughters and my MIL was living with us. The first time our daughter (AD) visited as part of introductions on two occasions so met them that way and the second time intros were much shorter and further away - our AD was obviously with us and our eldest daughter managed to visit for the day with her boyfriend but the others he didn’t meet till we got home. My Mum also came over the next day to meet him. However we kept it simple and short and it was a while before we went to other people’s houses. I did meet up with some friends in a park quite soon afterwards and we had a few days away in a caravan fairly soon. I don’t know if that was a good idea but I really needed it. It’s a balance and using your own judgement

Just to add our family are all local, with the farthest being only about 15 miles away. Thanks everyone for your responses, it's helped to put our minds at ease a bit!