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September birthday parties...

18 replies

Partaypartaypartay · 11/03/2019 20:26

My DS will turn 5 in the middle of September.

He is already talking about his party, he's so excited as we promised him a good party for his 5th birthday. His 4th was low key due to a new sibling!

Anyway, initially I was thinking that we would invite the whole class and just do a party in a church hall with a magician.

But it's just occurred to me that his school do a staggered start, so the first 6 weeks are half days/slow transition to full time. I assume this means that 2/3 weeks into term, when it would be his party, he won't have met everyone in the class yet, so perhaps inviting them all is weird? But he won't be able to 'pick his friends' by then as it's just too early in the year.

So I'm just wondering, from those with kids in reception already, what the best option might be.

A ) just invite everyone, send out a blanket invite on day 1 or 2

B ) just invite 2 or 3 friends who he makes in the first week or so. They might not end up being long term friends though and he doesn't get the 'big' party he wants.

C ) Do the party after half term, a month or so after his birthday.

There might be other options I haven't thought about yet, so hit me with them if you have any!

I know it's ages away but I want to book the hall and magician fairly soon as they are both ridiculously popular and need to be booked up early.

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DelurkingAJ · 11/03/2019 20:40

If DS can cope I’d go for C.

Thesnobbymiddleclassone · 11/03/2019 20:42

My DD is September. We just did a family thing and took in some sweets for the class.

Now that we know the class, we'll do a party this year. It's just felt a bit too rushed for me to organise invites etc in 2 weeks when we barely knew them.

theclockticksslowly · 11/03/2019 20:43

If you were thinking of doing a whole class party anyway I’d do A and send out invites to everyone - might be a nice fun way for them all to spend time together.

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ForgivenessIsDivine · 11/03/2019 20:56

A. A great way to get to know everyone. Invite parents to stay and put on tea and cakes for them too. Make it clear on the invitation that parents are welcome to hang around and socialise too.

APurpleSquirrel · 11/03/2019 21:51

DD is 5 at the beginning of September too - we're just going to do a low key outing this year with a few friends from nursery.
If I was you & set on a bigger party I'd go for either A or C.

TheClaifeCrier · 11/03/2019 21:58

Mid September DS here.

Did a whole class party, using a list from the teacher that I got the second day of term (thought it would be annoying to ask on the first day!) and they all came. Helped break the ice with the other parents as well.

troppibambini · 11/03/2019 22:00

Ds was 5 on the 8th of September.
We did a class party at soft play it was nice way for the parents to meet as well.
Be warned though you will get a high turn out every single child we invited came, I think it was because it was the first party!

Justajot · 11/03/2019 22:03

Does he go to a preschool/nursery with children who are going on to school with him? We just invited the ones from preschool who would be at school with DD1.

Partaypartaypartay · 12/03/2019 06:27

No, he's moving to a different School not attached to his pre school.

I think we will just go for it. Hopefully we will be able to get invites out easily enough. I'm aware that because of GDPR we wont be provided with a class list, so guess I'll have to just do 'blank' invites for the teacher to hand out. Would HATE to miss anyone though, can you imagine that!

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megletthesecond · 12/03/2019 06:35

Blanket invite for everyone.
Like trop everyone came to DD's party with 3 days notice. I also said they didn't haven't to bring presents, although most did.

It was also a chance to get to know the other parents.

APurpleSquirrel · 12/03/2019 11:33

The teacher should be able to provide you with a list of first names, surely?
GDPR relates to two forms of identifying data kept together.

Thesnobbymiddleclassone · 12/03/2019 12:30

My DDs school won't give out any names. Not even just first due to GDPR. They said it wasn't worth the risk of one parent complaining.

spiderlight · 12/03/2019 12:44

Invite everyone - get a list from the teacher or get them to put general invitations in book bags. It'll be a good way for you to meet the other parents and it might give you a rough idea of which kids he plays nicely with.

Hollowvictory · 12/03/2019 12:47

Just invite his existing friends not a whole class of people he doesn't know. He will barely have met the class by that point. My dd birthday is mid October and she didn't know anyone enough to invite them at that stage. She had existing friends instead

Hollowvictory · 12/03/2019 12:49

At our sc the teacher will not give a list of names nor give out invites. But maybe there'll be a fb or wassap group for parents you can use to message. Personally I'd invite his prescho friends it kids he literally may never have met.

SmarmyMrMime · 12/03/2019 13:36

DS is autumn term, we just wrote "dear classmate" out x30. I hadn't got a clue who was in the class as we worked FT and he was in wrap around care 8:05- 17:55 each day. There never has been Whatsapp for that class, and you'd have to start by knowing people and contacts anyway.

DS2 is Easterish and due to an odd distribution of birthdays, everyone came as it was the first one of the year! The cluster of autumn birthdays were nursery children so had small gatherings of close friends then a massive birthday gap over the winter!

BlueMerchant · 12/03/2019 13:39

I would do A.

Partaypartaypartay · 12/03/2019 16:53

Just invite his existing friends not a whole class of people he doesn't know. He will barely have met the class by that point.

Unfortunately this isn't an option really as all of his friends are staying on at the school the nursery is attached to. For various reasons, we aren't. He is already worrying about leaving them all and everything he knows, I really don't want to have a party where he invites all his old friends as it might just highlight the fact he doesn't see them anymore.

Seems like A is the plan to go with, I'll just have to be super organised about it all!

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