to be p***d off at people at my halloween party?

[beachsearcher]

Held a halloween party for my girls and the kids in this street, various ages from 2 up to 9. Kids didnt bother taking shoes off in the house despite being outside in the wet, walked round with food despite being asked nicely to sit and eat it so we didnt make a mess. The house was a massive sticky mess at the end of it.... had gone into loads of effort to decorate it and make it all lovely... nobody commented and nobody helped at all - all mums stayed and just watched the mess then got up and left the trashed house!!! Thats the last Halloween party i am doing... just a bit of appreciation, respect for the carpets and a hand or offer of a hand at the end.. not to much to ask is it???

I wish I had.. just finished trying to clean up the mess.

How many kids did you have over?

Kids get v v excited at hallowe'en. I've only help parties for older children and even at that, the only thing they have done in the house is eat and watch a scary film.

Last night, dd2 had 7 friends over and they went wild for the last half hour, playing rugby with balloons and shrieking like twits.

And dd2 is 12

Did you tell them to take shoes off?

tbh you should expect mess at a party.

and if my child had been invited i would expect to have to help (would have done but i wouldn't have thought it was expected of me)

Sounds par for the course really for any parties at home involving children, whether Halloween, birthdays, Christmas.

Lots of mess.
Sticky fingermarks everywhere.
Crumbs in the carpet.
Hours spent cleaning up afterwards.

I only tend to invite friends and their children that I know fairly well, and know that they are quite likely to respect my home and muck in with making drinks, washing the odd bowl up etc. I wouldn't expect people I don't really know to offer to help clean up but then wouldn't have them in my home in the first place IYKWIM.

Oh the Horror of Halloween [hgrin]

It does get kids hyped though (fatal levels of sugar notwithstanding). My DD has seen a grand total of 5 trick or treaters (in only 2 groups) and she was bouncing off the ceiling come bedtime (no sweets either - mean mummy alert)

Mess is part of the deal with kids' parties, isn't it?

I think you're being a wee bit unreasonable, but I sympathise because you did a nice thing.

You expect 2, 3, 4 year olds to sit down quietly while eating at a kids party at halloween? [hhmm] Have you ever met small children?

If you host a hallowee'en party then surely mess is to be expected.

If you have little kids around, they are not of the age to have table manners.

You are entirely right to be annoyed by it, fed up with being left to clean it up, but tbh I would have expected it.

YABU
Cant beleive you expect children to sit nicley at a party and not make a mess.

they are kids. you need to tell them to take shoes off. and tbh at a party, kids expect to go a bit mad and not to have to eat over the sink. parents do go to parties to help out. they go because they have been invited. if they help it is a bonus. i always expect a mess with no help when i have a party. if it isn't a mess i am very surprised.

and YABU.

At least your not a wierdo who held the kids party in the garage !

If you cant cope with the mess in your house , dont have parties ....or hire a community hall to do them.

YABU

Your house was a mess after a party? If mine isn't a mess, for people of any age, I'd assume I threw a rubbish party.

I throw a great party, btw...

This is why I have laminate. I had our party on Saturday and the house is still recovering. The guests understood the rules of the mummy wrap game to be 'unravel all the toilet rolls and throw them around the room - make sure it gets drinks spilt on it'

There is sweets and glitter everywhere. I am going to be finding squashed sweets and bits of loo roll for days to come I presume.

But to be fair, I kinda expected it and everyone had a great time. Especially me, when my friend turned up armed with Vodka and Magners.

I think you are being a bit unreasonable to be honest. I expect mess if I hold childrens parties. Although they are limited to just one room, so at the end of the party I can close the door and deal with later.