What's the worst kids party you've been to

[T181]

Please give me some examples of the worst kids party you've been to?? Im hosting one on Sunday for 25 children and actually am so worried about it I need some real life stories to calm my nerves

A party for three year olds, where there was the most elaborately decorated ‘Frozen’ (it was a few years ago) cake you’ve ever seen. It must have cost a fortune! DD was obsessed by it and wouldn’t leave until she had been given a piece. Problem was the parents had no intention of giving any of the kids invited to the party any of the cake. DD went away with one of those cheap muffins with a blob of hard icing on, that you get in trays of 12 from the pound shop.

My DD went to one when she was 4. The birthday boy had two younger sisters who were 2 and 3. Younger sisters were dressed identically. But the 3 year old sister had a different Mum (2 year old was a full sibling), so Dad had obviously played away. Might not have been too bad, except the Mum of the three year old and the Mum of the year two year old and the birthday boy clearly hated each other and did not want to be in the same room together. Dad oblivious to the bad feeling.

The host put on a kids film from 20 years ago and blew an actual whistle at any child who got up from the sofa whilst it was on.

Party for 30 3 year olds, 10am start, cold rainy tent in the muddy garden, party lunch appeared at 1, no food or drinks for parents. Host disappeared into the house to get party bags and didn't come out til past 3.

😱

One which was in a hall but the entertainment was very "eco"-themed and crafty - think weaving woolly peg-dolls and making dreamcatchers. It just didn't hold my 4 yo's attention and he and another boy spent the whole time running around the hall poking each other with their peg dolls. The cake looked lovely and my DC was very excited about it (I kept having to herd him away from it) but it turned out to be carrot cake. Having been given a HUGE piece of cake by the birthday child's mum (a lovely, lovely woman!) just because she had seen how enthusiastically he was circling it (like a predatory sharklet), I then had to eat most of it for him. I don't like carrot cake either.

The party bag was very sweet - some seeds in a little packet and a little painted earthenware pot to plant them in - but unfortunately my DC didn't really appreciate it. We had been to a more...traditional... children's party the week before where he had been given the standard sugar-filled plastic affair and I had to shoo him out of the room and our lovely host's hearing when he turned the bag upside down and piped up "Where's the haribo and lollipop?" He also dropped it on the pavement on the way home and cracked the little pot but luckily we were out of hearing by then.

I did make him plant the seeds in the garden but unfortunately nothing came of them. I think the birds probably ate them.

OMG, this is like an episode of Motherland or something 😮.

I remember a party where there was something odd about the village hall floor, and the balloons would pop whenever they landed on the floor. DS was a bit anxious about the whole thing, so that wasn't much fun.

We booked a puppet show for my son’s 6th birthday, all his class came to our house. The guy was about 60, fat and smelt bad. The puppet show was rubbish. It was a lovely sunny day and one by one each child left to go play in the garden where my son had all his dressing up gear out. In the end my mother in law was left with 2 children watching the awful show. Thankfully it only lasted about 45 minutes as he was late. We also had a magic show another year and whilst I was in the kitchen getting food ready, I looked in to see he had a big flame going on, I ran in and he quickly moved on from doing this trick.

I attended a trampolining party in the early 00's, the birthday girl was a county level trampolinist and the mum basically just wanted the opportunity to show off. We all got exactly 3 bounces on the trampoline before the mum demanded we get off and after our turn we all had to sit in a semi circle and watch the birthday girl go through her routines, in silence.
My mum said it was a scene from the children from the corn collecting me, just 12 8 year olds sitting in perfect silence watching this little girl jump

Main thing is make sure there are refreshments for the parents that are staying

Oh dear!

The weirdest one was one for a 2 year old where the parents had hired out a village hall but there was no decorations or entertainment or food for the kids, just loads and loads of alcohol! I remember children just running around chasing each other and the adults getting drunk. My dh thought it was brilliant but it was very surreal!

One with a DJ that played such loud music we couldn't hear one another

there was the most elaborately decorated ‘Frozen’ (it was a few years ago) cake

I think a fair amount of really elaborate cakes are mostly icing on styrofoam ‘cakes’ and there’s very little actual cake involved. Still not a great choice for a room full of three year olds.

I went to a party as a child where there was a terrible accident and another guest was seriously injured. I remember seeing her lying on the front lawn, and the paramedics and party dad covered in blood. She was in hospital for several weeks but made a full recovery. It was nobody's fault but I don't think the party mum ever got over it.

DD went to a party aged about six and came home hungry and upset. I had explained that she was vegetarian and offered to send food but the mum said she would sort it. Apparently there were😠

No idea what happened there.

... there were only meat pizzas and the party mum told my dd, and me later, that she didn't approve of vegetarians.

My kids went to one when they were in YR and Y1. It was a clown/circus party and the clown honked the hosts mum's boobs

Oh God some of these are truly horrendous!!! ok that makes me feel better
We have a 2 hour soft play party from 10-12 with a few light snacks(crisps cupcake and an alpen bar) drinks provided. And hot drinks for adults But there is no hot food the place has no kitchen currently (parents are aware of this) we have birthday cake to cut (and another cake incase we run out of the 1st one ) and party bags each which consists of bubbles, 2 glow sticks, a sticky climbing man thingy, and then a little bag of sweet- a lollipop, a dinosaur jelly sweet, a jelly sweet that looks like pizza/hotdog/burger or chips and small kinder chocolate bar.

I've stressed my self silly so much about this party I hope the kids all enjoy them selfs and don't get bored

Oh this is making me anxious. I’m hosting my first kids party in a few weeks time.

any tips for what will make a good party? (DD is in reception so usual protocol from the 4/5 there've already been seems to be invite the whole class and parents all stay)

Oh and the kids are 6

I went to one where there were loads of kids from 18 months to about 10. The whole room looked so beautiful, something out of instagram and perfect, all tasteful taupes and nudes. But there was no entertainment, so the kids basically pulled the decorations to shreds. The party mum was virtually running around snatching balloons from kids and complaining that the children were ruining “the vibe”. Because of the mix of ages too it wasn’t really safe for the little ones because the big ones were running riot. Then they brought out some kids food which was really bougie - all olives and vegetable crisps. The adults didn’t realise it was meant for the kids and are most of it.

It was a terrible and beautiful thing to watch.

Recently. A close friend had hired 'Elsa' to do some dancing and general entertainment for the party kids. They were super excited waiting for Elsa to arrive.

Doorbell / intercom rang, 'hi, I'm here to be Elsa?'

Comes up, knocks on the door. Comes in. Short dark hair, beer bottle bottom glasses, jeans, hiking backpack (and don't get me wrong, none of these things are terrible..... she just wasn't quite in character!!!)
Loudly, 'hi, I'm here to be Elsa, where can I get ready?'

Obvs totally ruined the mood for the kids who, age 4-5, genuinely thought that Elsa was actually coming!

'Elsa's wig kept coming loose. None of the kids were that bothered since they knew she definitely wasn't Elsa. So she started doing magic. But by magic I mean card tricks well over the heads of the kids, and, I shit you not, a trick with a magic rope that involved her putting the rope round a child's neck.

She didn't do her full hour, was asked to leave, the kids were very content running round with the balloons to be honest and nobody choked to death on a rope so that was good.

My friend was MORTIFIED but I reassured her that we all had a good time and her daughter prob wouldn't remember it. For the parents it was an EXCELLENT party - champagne, nice bbq and all sorts of lovely food!

At a party I went to when I was about 10, the party girl cried all the way through. Her mum threatened she’d put her in a home if she didn’t stop it, and adopt me instead of her.

This is VERY outing but MIL ordered a fake cake for my child's christening. I was so excited to share it, til she told me it was fake. There was another, mildly disappointing real cake, that I did not enjoy 😂😂 - expectation vs reality and all that. They'd organised the cake as we were doing the christening in their home country and so obvs didn't have local contacts.

Every time we visited for the next 18 months or so the fake cake would be hanging around. My poor son was TORMENTED by it, 'mummy, why can we never have any cake?'.

Haven't been since covid but apparently the Fake Cake is no more.

That's a good idea, I'm doing that next year