To think kids birthdays are so so stressful!

They’re as stressful as you let them be. Stop having such high expectations and comparing to what you think you should be doing or what you see online.

If you don’t want to host a party, don’t. Ask you child which friend or two they’d like round for tea after school or to go to soft play and McDonald’s!

Make firm boundaries with family about timings that they are allowed to come round to see your children for their birthday “Hi all, as you can imagine we’ve got a very busy weekend with DC birthday so we are giving the time a lot of between 1-4 on Saturday for family to pop round for a cup of tea and a slice of cake.”

Er I am just here to support you in saying I found/find all this kind of stuff insanely stressful. Pre-kids I had a board level position in a global media behemoth and I was nonchalant about putting together multi year strategies and presenting them to all and sundry - the skills required to be a good and organised mum I find insanely challenging. In work I had a PA to do all this, alas now I AM the PA for all this, I suck at it by nature though years of practice have made me better.

I really don’t get why posters jump on to a poster who are stressed out about something, be it a personal life thing, parenting, financial organisation, career issues, and immediately say ‘well I don’t find that stressful AT ALL, NEVER EVER SO THERE’. Maybe not, but perhaps your empathy and social skills could use a reboot!

OP - sympathies, comrade. Good luck with your party, it’ll be great when you get there. Drink tea, eat chocolate. And I’m sure you have other complex things you take in your stride!

Yes, I find them stressful. But we've always done whole-class parties and still do them even for the 8yo (we're one of a few families in the class who still do them) so every child gets invited to at least a few parties a year.

We usually have between 30-40 children attending and entertaining, feeding and organising this number of children is never going to be a relaxing experience 😂. I've mentally accepted that kids' parties = a lot of planning and hard labour.

Is one of the seven year olds vegan?

I actually came to say I find my dd's birthday party the most stressful day of the year! I'm quite introverted (unlike her) and all of it's hard - the invites, the coordination, meeting and greeting. Solidarity!

Only do the minimum. If MIL wants to come early , delegate .

It’s a kids birthday, it doesn’t need to be stressful. Ordering a specific cake for click and collect the day before is too risky if you are bothered about what you get. And knowing today about GF for a party on Sunday isn’t a bit deal. Try and calm down and put things into context a bit, it’s a kids birthday, nothing bad is going to happen. Organise things differently next year

I’ve always had parties for mine, which is not apparently the done thing on here but who cares, the kids have a ball, and they can be a bit stressful.

Do you have a Cake Box near you? You can get photos done or characters. Dd had a horse and ds had lightning McQueen.

We’ve gone with trampoline parks / soft play and they have done everything; it’s expensive though.

Well, I can't tell you you don't find it stressful, as you obviously do, but tbh, I didn't particularly. Family parties were literally just a cup of tea and cake. We never had house parties, just threw them at a soft play, or one of the local trampoline parks, and took everyone for pizza afterwards. I think the most complicated one was a party share with DS's best friend when they were aged 7, where it involved a local leisure centre hall and a mobile go-kart racing thing, and the other child's older siblings showed up with lots of their friends for the food, which meant DH had to run out for about eight large pizzas in the middle of it all, but actually, everyone had a blast.

I wouldn't rely on click and collect for a specific cake, ever, but you know that now! Good luck with it all. I'm sure it will be fine.

I have never found them stressful. Birthdays are pretty low key in our family. My DC’s only ever had one party, which didn’t go ahead as dd1 and me came down with a sickness bug the night before, after that I refused to do parties and they just had a friend over or a trip out somewhere. Cake has probably been the most important part but I make my own.

Christmas is way more stressful.