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

@RocketAndAFuckingMelon that really made me laugh! I think that's the shittest one so far. Like a lost contestant from Child Genius when they do the cutaways to show how smart they are, when you know it's a just covert way to show how crap the parents are. 😆

Also the place doesn't allow you to bring your own food in nor does it currently do hot food

Bit unreasonable of them not to allow food when their kitchen is out of action. I’d be tempted to ignore that and give the kids a snack bag anyway. Maybe just a sausage/cheese roll, crisps, biscuits and a drink or something?

Don’t know what I read where I thought they were four 🙈

And I’d swap the Alpen bars for bags of mini party rings/jammy dodgers/cookies, they come in six packs usually and you can get them from pound shops

Just a bit more appealing to kids and more party food like 👍🏻

@SBAM Sounds like you've got all bases covered. It will be fine!

An alpen cereal bar is a frankly bizarre choice for a child's party food! :p

Not bad as such just poor hosting....

Friend asks if I mind coming early to help with the food. No problem.
Get there, her not so "D" had one job... Supervise the their kids whilst we got the food ready. Spent most the timeoutside smoking and playing on his phone whilst we juggled a baby, party girl and the food.

Then came in the kitchen as I was washing up and made himself a cup of tea. No offer to anyone else. I ended up making all party guests parents hot drinks. He huffed and puffed about having to do music for the party games. Literally pressing pause for pass the parcel. Another dad stepped in thankfully and kept all the kids entertained.

I'd never been the biggest fan of him (you might have guessed 😂) but this just highlighted how lazy he was!

Completely agree! Just turn up with whatever you want to give them. They're hardly going to stop you.

Helicopter Mum organised a party for her DD’s 8th birthday.

We (the parents) all had to stay and it was just horrible.

We watched the birthday girl open her presents. She opened the present DD gave her, looked at it in disgust and threw it over her shoulder.

Each child had a place at the table to do a canvas painting. Helicopter Mum made the group paint a specific picture, she ‘taught’ them what colours to mix and how to apply the paint. God help them if they got it wrong.

The adults enjoyed some of the (made from scratch) vegan buffet, hand stretched pizzas with cheese substitute, crudités, dips but the children were less taken with it.

They were excited when the cakes cake out - beautifully decorated cupcakes… despite the massive amount of food colouring obviously used, they were Vegan, sugar free
with an unsweetened cream cheese topping.

Sadly the beautiful cakes were abandoned. One bite taken out of each one by the party guests.

So much effort, tension & such a waste.

I’ve just ordered a bouncy castle for my DDs 5th birthday, the first thing my 8 & 10yo asked was were they allowed to go on the bouncy castle. A bunch of 7yo will love the course and face paint. Just make sure they are well fed.

@FoggySpecs
😱 This is horrific and my worst nightmare. Do you know how it happened? Was it in a pool or somewhere else? I might never let my children go to a swimming party again 😰.

Not the worst, but the best! As a child aged about 8, two friends had birthdays on the same day and their parents hired a village hall and a disco. I was so envious of that party! They had buffet food and I ate about 12 French Fancies (the little iced cakes) and stuffed cheese and pineapple sticks then threw up all night afterwards! The best of times...!

A bad one for us wasn't really a one it was a 2 day experience.... 4 class parties all in the same crappy hall (Sat am, Sat pm, Sun Am, sun pm) all with the same entertainer who played the music way too loud (kids had hands over their ears).
DH was working that weekend so I got to go to all 4 ... it wasn't just me who was fed up by Sunday pm, all the kids had had enough and all the adults looked miserable.
The parents have now all vowed to speak to each other in advance now and possibly have a joint party or two.

When the bday boy was such a brat towards all the kids. This was a party at their home recently with loads of activities and toys laid out in the garden for the kids. Ds was 3, the birthday boy turning 5. The little brat literally taunted every child and blocking them from going on the mini bouncy castle, the trampoline, the trike Car and any toys that was laid out in the garden for the kids. There were about 6 other kids from age 5-2 crying because little Hugo didn't want anyone near his toys. The mum didn't intervene at all. All the other kids including mine were miserable and were expected to watch little Hugo do back flips. We got a lovely present for Hugo and also a birthday card with £50 note because it was DH's best friends kid, so I left the present which was in a gift back already marked who it came from and I just couldn't bring myself to give the birthday card with the cash. Little Hugo deserves jack shit. We went home an hour later. Little Hugo's mum has been texting for a play date and I've been saying "we have plans" for some time now.

Worst one we held was a sleepover for dd, age 9 and seven friends. It went well until about 12pm when I wanted to sleep. The girls didn’t! They didn’t sleep even for 5 minutes, and were screaming and shrieking at various intervals through the night! They had a blast!

After a sleepless night for me, I never allowed my kids to have more than 2 friends to sleepover ever again, and I set ground rules and expectations from then on, that they were to be settling down by about midnight.

I've just asked my 14yo he says he can remember all of his from 4 - I tested him and he does seem to, thankfully quite positively although with some hyperbole ... they did not "nearly get struck by lightning" at his football party but there was a thunderstorm.
I can remember 3 of mine from my childhood 2 good and 1 bad.

Just add loads and loads of balloons and a foam football (as long as it won’t land on party food etc.

That always worked for us.

They are all crap, especially the 16th, 18th, and 21st with mummy, daddy, and granny.
Cringe, British parties are so bloody twee.

The worst birthday party I attended was the 9th birthday for my own ds. I hired the local go kart track, and arranged for party food to be be served in a room there. There had been sort of mix up / staffing issue and they couldn't provide the food I ordered. Instead they ran to the local m&s food hall for a sandwich platter which was a bit 'grown up' in taste for a bunch of 8 / 9 year old boys.

Three of the invitees then went utterly feral. One pissed in the bin, another squirted fruit shoot up the wall and a third started throwing food.

I had another mum helping out and we just couldn't believe it. I have never seen that before or since. I had to be quite firm with the kids because others were getting upset.

There was no way that we were going to fill time allotted as the go karting finished earlier than they said it would, so I phoned the parents and said the party was finishing half an hour earlier than expected- there was nothing else to do.

It was bloody awful!

Actually our worst one was dd’s 18th birthday party during covid, when it was 6max, outside gatherings only! Pissing it down with rain and trying to spend a few minutes with people under a leaky gazebo!

Jesus. I’m quite sure neither have those poor girls. Or their current therapists. 😢

I have questions!

Please tell me more about the magician and the mum.

Two where the mums have been very smug lentil weavers. The first one where all the decorations and party bags were handmade. The food (chosen by birthday girl) was broccoli soup, roasted cauliflower florets and a handmade mini sourdough loaf. The dc were all but the party mum was so incredibly smug about her dd's favourite food. The party 'games' were basically navel gazing out loud about what you wanted for the future generation.
Second one was a 'bring and share' picnic which meant zero effort for the mum and everyone else had to bring a dish. If that wasn't cheeky enough we got a text from mum that it was her other dd's "half birthday" so not to leave her out of the gift giving She was incredibly smug too, probably very happy with all of the mugs who'd made a party whilst she only had to turn up.

The food (chosen by birthday girl) was broccoli soup, roasted cauliflower florets and a handmade mini sourdough loaf

I bet their house reeked of farts after that 😳

I bet that mum was a MNer. You get lots of this type on threads about any food absolutely swearing blind that their 8 year old would always choose a carrot stick over a jammy dodger.

As others have said OP, that’s not enough that food. And if they can’t provide it then bring it. Two hours of soft play the kids will be sweaty and starving!