Parents at Kids' Birthday Parties
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Parents at Kids' Birthday Parties
Feb 1996
I'm curious about at what age parents stop attending
birthday parties with their children. When I was in high school
working at McDonald's and running birthday parties there, only
the birthday child's parents would attend the party. But now
parents seem to always stay at the party, or at least up through
age five. I'm particularly curious because, due to lack of
space in our apartment, we've decided to have my daughter's
party at a children's theater. Since we'll have to pay for
tickets for any parents who attend the party, I'd like to note
on the invitation that it's fine for parents to drop off their
kids rather than staying with them. Any opinions?
Beth
Re birthday parties: I have 2 boys (a 15-year-old and an
almost-7-year-old), so I've done birthdays every which way. My experience
re parents staying with the kids is that it starts calming down around
kindergarten--most of the parents of the kids invited to my son's 6th
birthday last year didn't stick around, but they routinely did at the
earlier parties. Venue and culture have something to do with it, too. In
the UC Village, birthday parties often become dual parties for adult
neighbors at one level and child neighbors at another (which means you need
to have lots of food and drink!).
Tamra
One thing that I always do, and find the lack of quite annoying
in other birthday parties that my son attends, is I write on the
invitation "Children Only Required to Attend." This lets people know
what to expect, how to plan their day. I always rope a friend or two
in to help me. I once attended a 4 year olds party, given from 11-1,
where all the parents stayed as we were part of the kinder gym activities.
However, then there was pizza and cake for the kids, but nothing for
the parents. I think if you expect parents to stay for the party,
you have to give them something to eat. One good thing about that party,
I suppose, is that everyone left right on time, because all the parents
were hungry and wanted to go eat.
Dianna
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