Those with kids.... Birthday parties

[Endlessnameless]

Maybe it's because I am fairly new to parenting but I remember as a Kid, birthday parties being a huge deal. I never really considered myself popular but I always had quite a few people come to mine and the parties I would go to always had tons of people. Fast forward, I have a four year old in preschool and for the birthdays they give each student an invitation. The last one we went to, my daughter was the only child to show up. I happen to come across a thread online somewhere talking about birthday parties and that it is not uncommon to have nobody show up. Have any of you guys encountered this before?

 

[Neodogg]

No, its always been a sugar fueled mad house.

 

[LoneSage]

never. if your kid has no one showing up then they done fucked up somehow. tell them to be less autistic and more protistic.

 

[Endlessnameless]

No, its always been a sugar fueled mad house.

Exactly! That's what the first party I took her to was like. Kids everywhere eating sugar laced treats and running around like maniacs.

 

[Liquid Snake]

Maybe it's because I am fairly new to parenting but I remember as a Kid, birthday parties being a huge deal. I never really considered myself popular but I always had quite a few people come to mine and the parties I would go to always had tons of people. Fast forward, I have a four year old in preschool and for the birthdays they give each student an invitation. The last one we went to, my daughter was the only child to show up. I happen to come across a thread online somewhere talking about birthday parties and that it is not uncommon to have nobody show up. Have any of you guys encountered this before?

I've heard someone invites bunch of fire fighters after no one shows up in the party........................

 

[mjmjr25]

Birthdays are still a big deal at the pre-school to 6th grade age - with the biggest years being 1st-3rd, in my experience with 4 kids, the last of which is in 1st grade now.

I don't know about all schools, but most now, because of our sensitivities, require you to invite ALL kids in the class, or not at all. Meaning - you can't deliver invites to the 5 friends you'd like to have come - you have to deliver to all of them.

That means you are invited to 15-20 parties every year. Some of these parents celebrate half-birthdays to make sure their kid gets a party during the school year.

So, what happens is this: you ask your kid, is this one of your best friends? Do you really want to go to this party? The answer is always yes. By the time our 2nd child was going through this, after having done about 30 parties with our oldest, we started to phrase it differently. Do you want to go this party? Or, would you rather stay home with us and we'll give you a bucket of ice cream, $10, and you can wear your pajamas all day?

So yeah - the parents get so worn out and attendance drops.

 

[blakeb8111]

In my sons school they provide a student/parent contact list and you have to mail out the invitations to the kids you actually want to invite. You can't hand them out in school at all so you don't hurt anyone's feelings. On Valentine's Day the valentines have to be generic, not addressed to anyone, so they can place one in everyone's valentines box. The world has gone way too soft. My son was also the only one who attended one of his classmates parties, which was pretty sad. He didn't really want to go either, so that kid probably fucked up pretty bad too.

 

[Jibbajaba]

I don't know what's worse. Being a parent in this day and age, or being a kid. This all sounds fucking horrendous.

 

[mjmjr25]

I don't know what's worse. Being a parent in this day and age, or being a kid. This all sounds fucking horrendous.

Is this message for anyone in particular, or for all forum users. All posts must be made intended for all forum users; or not at all.

 

[HDRchampion]

Yeah, you have to invite the whole class...During the special day, you bring in a "healthy treat" must be store bought...I brought in cupcakes, which is no bueno...So now i just bring in veggie trey or fruit platter w/ juice box.

Our first birthday kid celebration was at Chucky Cheese...Her whole preschool class showed up, i think was 15 or so. Not one good gift, not one gift over $8 cheap bastards. Bought a bunch of pizza & tokens (20) for each kid.

We also did a birthday sleepover celebration in my house, man this was fucking nut house. Girls are loud n crazy. My idea was have a bunch of awesome food, setup Jurassic Park 3d in the home theater, plays some arcade in the gameroom & then sleep....These kids wanted to play some hide n seek bullshit, karaoke, arts n craft, ghost stories, talent show bullshit...They couldn't even eat cake normal because "one girl" thought it would be funny to eat it like a dog, so half of them did it & made a huge mess. They didn't sleep until 5am. The only good that came out of this is you know which friends you tell your kid to not be friends anymore.

So far my daughter has always had a bunch of people show up to all her birthdays. Whenever she goes to parties, only 2-4 is the norm. As pain in the ass these parties are, i would really feel bad for my kid if hardly no one shows up or worse no one showing up.

 

[FilthyRear]

Our first birthday kid celebration was at Chucky Cheese...Her whole preschool class showed up, i think was 15 or so. Not one good gift, not one gift over $8 cheap bastards. Bought a bunch of pizza & tokens (20) for each kid.

Were there any arcade games there?

You could've put some OT in for your "arcade career."

Chuck E. Cheese ain't cheap, nigga.

 

[HDRchampion]

Were there any arcade games there?

You could've put some OT in for your "arcade career."

Chuck E. Cheese ain't cheap, nigga.

Yeah they have tons of arcade there & only 1 toke per game.

It wasn't that expensive, it was less then $500...That include venue fee, give aways, food, entertainment, & best of all no clean up.

 

[Jibbajaba]

Is this message for anyone in particular, or for all forum users. All posts must be made intended for all forum users; or not at all.

I don't really understand what you're trying to say, but I was talking about the rules and politics that apparently govern the execution of the modern-day birthday party. When I was a kid, we invited our friends to our birthday parties, and our friends invited us. No one wants kids that they don't like or don't know at their party. Parents should stop trying to protect kids from having their feelings hurt.

Edit: Sorry, I just now got what you were doing, there. Durr.

 

[Endlessnameless]

I've heard someone invites bunch of fire fighters after no one shows up in the party........................

Yeah, that was the article. And I guess it's just a cultural shift because everything you guys are saying about your kids is happening with my daughter. Mind you, this is only preschool but from what I gather you hand the invitations over to the teachers and they hand them out. And it has been years since I've done a valentines day box but when I was going to school you would get a class list of all the names and write the names of the students on the envelopes and dropped them in the converted shoe box/mail box. This is our first year of doing this but we had to write our daughters name on the valentines.

 

[neo_mao]

Granted, my older daughter is only 4 but we don't have to invite her whole class, (thankfully). Maybe that will change once she starts 1st grade?

Bdays for us have been pretty easy. We've just done it at Gymboree or My Gym, have the people there entertain the kids, serve the food and clean-up. Price is pretty reasonable too….at least for smaller parties. It's nice, all I have to do is basically schmooze the parents and take pics.

She's growing out of that though so I got to think about what to do next year - probably gets harder as they get older...

 

[mr_b]

I find it funny that anyone would allow the school to tell them who they can invite to an outside school function. They have no jurisdiction there and would get a hearty FU from me.

 

[smokehouse]

Every year we've tapered down our daughter's party's. First major one was her 4th, rented out this Zoo section, all kinds of animals, food, etc. Pretty fun. For her 5th, 6th, more low-key, rented a park pavilion, had tons of games, food, prizes, etc. Last yer was her 7th...more low-key, rented a local farm-park. Probably 20 or kids this time.

This Aug will be her 8th...we'll be going to Disney beginning of that month...so no big party this time around.

 

[Electric Grave]

Were there any arcade games there?

You could've put some OT in for your "arcade career".

Que cagada!~ Buena mi negro!

 

[theMot]

McDonalds parties FTW. $10 a head, lock them in the playground and they even give you a pimply teenager host to run the show.

 

[StevenK]

McDonalds parties FTW. $10 a head, lock them in the playground and they even give you a pimply teenager host to run the show.

I used to love mcdonalds parties. I bet you don't get a creepy ronald mcdonald touching your kids up any more though do you?

On topic, we had my sons 3rd birthday party on sunday, just a small handful of kids and their parents. I guess you avoid a lot of the bullshit politics before they get into school, not looking forward to that. What I hate the most is having to hang around with the dads who don't actually have that much to do with their kids, it's painful to see them trying to join in when you can tell their kids barely know them.

 

[HDRchampion]

That's pretty judgmental if the kids are only 2-3 years old. You really dont know how involve father's are, just because a kid seem to be more receptive to the mom.

I really dont like talking to most of the parents, most of them are so much older then me. I thought couple of them were the grandparents. You can only do small chat for so long.

 

[Electric Grave]

Fuck them birthday parties where you have to invite the whole class. I wouldn't give a shit, I'd just ask my kid who do you wanna invite and that's it. The party is for my kid, not the fucken class but if he/she wants the whole class by all means bring them all but I wouldn't do it 'cause of some school bullshit.

 

[HDRchampion]

Fuck them birthday parties where you have to invite the whole class. I wouldn't give a shit, I'd just ask my kid who do you wanna invite and that's it. The party is for my kid, not the fucken class but if he/she wants the whole class by all means bring them all but I wouldn't do it 'cause of some school bullshit.

haha, you can do it on the down low by preplanning who your kid wants...

I think this is more geared to the younger kids like pre-school to first grade. My daughter was very shy & didn't know who to invite. When they all turned out, it pretty much broke the shell for her & they were able to get a strong bond with her class. She is very social to everyone & not just her exclusive circle of friends.

 

[Electric Grave]

I guess that makes sense, I just hate schools imposing on family.

 

[StevenK]

That's pretty judgmental if the kids are only 2-3 years old. You really dont know how involve father's are, just because a kid seem to be more receptive to the mom.

Fair point - yeah I'm not being very fair there. Really I was thinking of one father in particular who is a prick, he hardly ever turns up to anything then on the rare occasion he does he's actually shouting stuff to his son who's a metre away from him with one eye on everyone else making sure they're seeing what a 'great dad' he is. Gets on my nerves.