Most of the time that you are invited to someone's house for a meal, you take something with you, whether it be a drink or an appetizer, snack or dessert. As soon as we're invited somewhere, I always ask what I can take, and sometimes they'll mention something specifically or sometimes they'll say you shouldn't take anything (in this case I always take at least some drink anyways!).
This applies if it's a single family's house you're going to or a get together with many people, assuming it was planned by the group. If it's a group thing then it's usually announced that everyone should take a drink and snack. One family will provide the main meal as the hosts, or the main meal will be split up as well and everyone brings part of it.
The exception is parties - birthday parties for example. If you're invited to a birthday party you just take a gift, not food for the most part, as that is the host's responsibility. This also means that when we throw a party for whatever reason, we dish out the money to cover it all (and parties in Mexico are no small thing!).
Another thing is eating out at restaurants - if you invited someone out, you will usually pay their meal, or the bill will get split straight down the middle if you're an equal amount of people per family (or all individuals). So it doesn't really matter if you try to be frugal and order something small! You'll often pay a higher amount anyways. But this is because Mexicans are so relational and communal and that is the most important. If we are out with people that we know very well though, we notice that then people feel more free to look at the bill and pay their own cost, especially if they only ordered a coffee and everyone else ordered a while meal. There are generalities and then there are always exceptions!
You also usually offer your food to others if you're eating something they don't have, so they can try it! You would never buy a snack for yourself when hanging out with people and not offer any to anyone. Even kids from a young age are taught to always offer everyone some of their food to try.
And picnics! The other day one of the mom's from 4th grade planned a get together in the park for all of the families, to say good-bye to a student that is moving away and to the teachers that won't be back at the school next year.
Everyone was asked to bring their own lunch for themselves and their kids. What this means is that you take enough of whatever you bring along for the group! So one person brought two pizzas. Another about 20 little sandwiches. Another a few bags of chips. Another a plate of fruit. Another several boxes of juice. etc. You don't need to arrange what everyone will bring, but it's all put on the communal table and kids and parents are completely free to take from whatever they like. There's no sense of "mine" and "yours".
Side note: I remember our last furlough in Canada being invited to a friends house. It was several kids and moms and we all were to take a picnic lunch. I remember wondering how this worked in Canada! When it was time to eat, we all sat on the deck with our own kids gathered around us and each family only ate what they had brought in their lunch, without offering or sharing food. It was a bit of a cultural learning thing for me, as I've never really lived in Canada with kids and when we're on furlough I feel like I need to "learn" the mom/kid cultural expectations! haha It's all good though, I love to learn culture things, it's so interesting to me no matter what culture, and none is exactly right or wrong. These kinds of things just are.
Yesterday I went as a chaperone with Logan's class to the zoo.
Again we were all to bring our own lunch. However, another mom that went is a very good friend of mine and she called the day before to see what we should take for "our" lunch. The assumption was that we would share our food of course. So I packed some sandwiches and yogurt and she took fruit and drinks and cookies. She also went around and offered all of our snacks to all of the kids!
In the kindergarten area of the school they've made a rule that kid are not allowed to share their lunches during lunchtime. This is because the school wants to avoid problems with parents from other countries who may not like that their kid is not eating their own lunch (the school has some international students), and because parents do want to make sure their kids are eating the healthy things they make sure to put in their lunches. But in the rest of the school, kids do share. Today Carter told us that he always takes a ton of pretzels because by the time everyone's had some he only has 3 left for himself! We did say it was ok to say no or to limit his friends ;)
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