Organising a child's party in a park - help please!

[sonichedgehog82]

My DD will be 4 in August and we are just looking into organising a party - the first one she'll have had. She's excited as she's been to a number of 4th birthday parties so far this year from kids at nursery.

I'm clueless as she's our eldest and wanted to ask if anyone can help with a few possibly obvious / silly questions!

As it will be summer we want to hold it in the park (as opposed to a soft play). We are fortunate enough to live by one of the royal parks in London where you can hold a gathering so long as it's no more than 30 people.

My questions are:

• it's only me, DH and DC with no grandparents or family to help set up the area with balloons, party food etc or run party games. Am I taking too much on? I'm struggling to work out the logistics of getting it all set up, carrying everything there and clearing away whilst looking after DC.
• I was wondering whether any companies this service?
• alternatively we have 2 lovely babysitters are are early years carers from the nursery - do you think we could offer them the opportunity to help us run the party for a decent fee or is that insulting?
• what other things and ideas should we factor in to arranging a kids party in a park? (Other than weather contingency plan of course).

Thank you!

For DS’s 5th birthday we did a park party because he’s not into big loud indoor parties. It was probably smaller than you are imagining but we literally had a handful of kids, some bubble wands, and some balloons tied to a festival wagon. DH did a Happy Meal run and we sat them all on a couple of picnic blankets.

The benefit of the park is that it provides the entertainment for you!

Is there a toilet not too close by but within easy reach?

Absolutely fine to ask childcare workers if they want to assist, paid of course, that’s not insulting at all!

I’d see if you can get hold of one of those wagon things people have at festivals/garden centres, it would be very useful for transporting everything there and back again.

Personally I’d divide and conquer. When we’ve done parties, I take on the decorating/food etc and DH keeps the kids busy and out the way whilst I’m setting up. I’d leave her at home/playing in the park and set up then she can come join you when it’s ready.

There are some companies that run forest school type parties, so it could be worth checking what’s available near you.

At that age, parents will probably want to stay so you should plan for that as well. Mostly parents are happy to snack on party food in my experience!

As you’re in a park rather than an enclosed area, I think it would be useful to have help, so getting one of the babysitters sounds like a good idea. My main concern would be children wandering off, as even if you have parents there to watch, it’s easy to be distracted.

As daft as it sounds, one thing to be mindful of is other children / people in the park. They might want to get involved in the activites, join in with the games and help themselves to the food. Yes their parents / carers should try to distract them / move them away, but it's a public space and it's not always easy to explain why they can't join in.

I also agree with a PP who mentioned the toilets, a lot of our local parks don't have them.

There are companies who can do this for you.

The babysitters are a good shout actually!

Toilets
Shaded area
Water supply? Kids drink a ton at parties and esp if outside and warm

What games are you wanting to do?

I would try and get 1 adult to supervise every 4 children. Make a timetable of activities/games. If you haven’t enough adults, ask if any parents can help, that’s what we did in DS’s class. Allergies are also a consideration, especially having the party outside. A first aid kit would also be handy and wet wipes.

We’ve done this. At the tail-end of covid so no other choice really! We bought several picnic blankets. Snacky food- prepared fruit from the supermarket, packets of pom bears, cartons of juice and mini water bottles, cupcakes instead of a big birthday cake that needs to be cut. To play with we had footballs, stomp rockets, giant bubble wands and the last minute addition of water pistols due to a heatwave. The kids were happy just to run around and didn’t need much organised fun. A few bottles of Prosecco in the cool box and plastic glasses for the adults. Other than the fact it was 32 degrees and that caused all the balloons to pop it worked really well, just haven’t been brave enough to try it again in case we don’t get so lucky with the weather! Take lots of bin bags for rubbish + ikea bags for presents would be my advice.

I agree at that age they will probably just be happy playing, eating and running around with a few garden games to play with/pass the parcel.

At this age, surely the parents will be staying too?

What if it rains?

When I nannied at parties like this i’d assemble cardboard lunch boxes and put in cheese sandwiches, crisps, fruit, packet of iced gems. Then everyone gets their own portion. Any allergies can be made up separately and a big label name stuck on so it’s given to the right child.

Biggest pain in the arse at these parties were other people’s dogs bowling up and trying to steal food 🙄

We didn’t really do many organised games, probably a round of duck duck goose or what’s the time mr wolf, musical statues, had some bubble wands going.

I honestly wouldn't only because she will be gutted if it rains and no one shows up. I'd hire an entertainer for an hour and a village hall. If not then get a marquee set up so even if it rains the party can go ahead. Other peoples dogs and kids will invade in a park.

We did a park birthday party and similar to you, we had no additional help. We managed it but the fact it was an enclosed, fenced-off area of a park that we had hired made things a lot easier. We found we spent the vast majority of the party chatting to other adults, welcoming and saying goodbye to people, organising food/drinks/cake etc - meanwhile our child was largely unsupervised but safe in the party area (and lots of other parents were present). If you are going to be in an open area, I think a lot of your time will be spent checking where your child is. We had 45mins to set up and put up a few balloons, bunting and a gazebo plus set out a few games and a table for food in that time. Was a bit of a mad rush!

Other thoughts -

• You need shade - either find area with natural shade or put up a gazebo.
• Somewhere to eat - either picnic tables or blankets
• Take food pre-prepared in tupperware and serve it in that, no need to transfer to other dishes etc.
• Toilets nearby
• If there is no cafe nearby, provide drinks for adults in addition to the children or make clear to guests in advance that only drinks for children will be provided.

Edited to say - party was a huge success!

If not then get a marquee set up so even if it rains the party can go ahead.

I'm not sure if the OP has a plan for wet weather, but marquees and gazebos aren't allowed.

To ensure everyone enjoys the parks fully, we ask that you refrain from the following:

To answer the questions:

• yes parents will attend too
• yes toilets are close by plus a cafe
• there's a sectioned off area where no dogs are allowed so we are thinking of going there

I do think we would need some sort of table but it's a struggle knowing how to transport all this stuff.

Surely it would be worse if no-one turned up to a village hall! The beauty of a park is that only a couple of families could turn up and it would be ok.

In any case we will have a WhatsApp group and ask for RSVPs so we get an idea.

August is a really tricky time too as lots of people will be on holiday. Why not wait until the first weekend back in September? It's summer in the UK not Spain: you need a rain plan. Why not go for a village hall with an outdoor space so you can have the party outdoors if the weather is good? Either that or don't tell your DD until the day before so if it all goes tits up she's not disappointed.

@sonichedgehog82 People will turn up to a party at village hall in the rain but not so much in a park.

I would have a back up plan just incase the weather turns. I would also make sure if it turns out to be a scorcher of a day that you get a gazebo of some sort for some shade.

I would do invites for the party, even if it’s a small one you’ll want to know who’s actually attending so you have the right amount of food. It will also be better for your dd as if only a couple can make it then she’s not got her hopes up of a giant party.

A park party is great but be prepared for other children to try and join. My nephew is awful/ hilarious for just wandering into other people’s park parties and then a nightmare for trying to drag away so maybe a sign saying ‘dd birthday party’ that way other parents don’t think it’s an event for small children.

Like I said in my OP, we are aware that in UK weather contingency plans are always needed. My questions were more about the organisation given we have limited human resources.

Think HooleyB meant not turning up because of the rain. I wouldn't chance it - what would Plan B be if it tips it down??

I did a park party years ago for one of mine. It was actually more stressful if I'm honest.

Are you saying it's just you and your DH ? This definitely won't be enough people so if you can get that extra paid help do, it was such a pain trying to lay out food, set up everything with every kid and dog on the planet coming over wanting to join in. Then the party kids arrived in dribs and drabs.

You'll have parents who will help you and some who won't, they'll stick with their own kids which is fair enough. We didn't take into account the distance from the car to the picnic spot so we had to do many trips back and forth getting supplies and we had many helping us.

Then toilets, you need to be near a toilet, also remember that someone has to bring them, I'm sure most parents will stay but some don't so make sure you put on invites that parents must stay, kids went to the toilet a million times and wandering off.

Even though ours were slightly older at the time it was quite stressful, you needed eyes in the back of your head. You don't say how many kids ? If it's a handful it could be fine, we had I think about 15 but most brought other kids with them as they'd no childcare and assumed as it was outdoors they'd be fine to bring siblings.

@HooleyB they're all starting school first week of September so that won't be ideal. We are going to see who's around in August as they will still be attending nursery throughout August so only some with older siblings may be on holiday but plenty will still be in London.