childrens parties

[justhavintheone]

am sick fed up of them, they waste a whole day at my weekend and are so frequent! can we ban them!!

I don't see them as a waste. My children love them and as they are small I go with them and stay, and LOVE watching them enjoying themselves. It makes me feel all warm and glowy seeing them have so much fun. How can that be a waste?!

YABU

There no need to ban them, you are allowed to say Sorry we cannot come".

You old grump

If the children enjoy them, where is the harm. You can always turn the invitation down, of course.

I love parties, it gives me a couple of hours of peace.

lol, i am old grump, child no 3 thats alot of soft play watching!

Kids parties are great for the kids.

I used to like talking to all the other parents but as they get older you leave them and have a couple hours off.

As they get older again they get fewer and fewer.

ds went to maybe 25 in reception.

year 3 prob 10

i love going away for days so it stops me doing that, and havnt the heart to turn down the invites if kids want to go x

I'm dreading the day the ds's start getting party invites.

I'm dreading having to host them even more though.

And funnily I've only felt like this since joining mumsnet.

May not be a problem, FoxAche.
I've got 3 DC now in yrs2-6, who combined have been invited to what?.... a total of 3 birthday events (parties or outing) in the last 18 months. Very few invites at preschool age, only 2 invites for DS1 in his reception year. DD got invited to maybe 7 parties in her reception year, I must admit that started to feel tedious. I agree that Reception is the max year by a big margin for party invites.

Yabu, just say no if you'd rather do something else!

Bet you would be more concerned if there were no invitations coming! We aways accept some and decline others. I do think the people that are rushing from one to another to another are being a little silly, although think thats me being a grump as now I think about it when I had my first (now 15) I remember doing that myself!! But I know some Mums do find them hell. Could you ask other Mums to take your child so it reduces the amount you go to? I have often taken other people's children with me.

YABU I love it when dd aged 4 gets invites, she has had 6 in her preschool year. DD has social communication difficulties/speech and language delay so I wasent expecting any invites but I have been happily surprised. Going to the parties has helped her socially as well, to adapt to different situations, she went to one yesterday and loved it.

have no prob taking them, espec if play area has nice coffee and cakes! just love to go away days with all my kids at weekends and the parties limit this! feel too bad to say they cant go as they love them xx

I do not mind too much, mind you that could be because ds1 is in a class where the children all turned 5 before the end of Feb, so I know there will be no more school birthday parties until September! He does have a party today, an outside school friend, but again I think that is the last of those until Sept too!

yabu, you could just say you can't go.
dd never gets any party invites though, just one would be nice!

How old is your DD, paddington?

If it really is EVERY weekend I suggest you choose some weekends well in advance and tell your DC that those weekends are going to be party free even if they get an invite. If they are going that often they can cope with missing a few. Maybe plan something else fun for the DC, so they have something else to look forward to.

ragged, it is most weekends. will start doing that espec with summer coming in, i like to go beach, hillwalking etc.. also want to get a wee caravan and dont want to limit our weekends away just for two hour party on a sat afternoon, just hate the kids to miss out on the parties espec wee girl as she loves!!!

ragged, dd is 7.5.
She changed schools in yr 1 (is now in yr 3) and hasn't had a party invite since. She does mention some kids she plays with, and we've had a couple of playdates. Not all kids have parties when they get older though do they? dd doesn't seem upset so far tbh - I've probably noticed it more than she has!

i love taking the children to parties, i enjoy sitting with the other mothers and having a catch up, but i only go outside of caravan season.

YABU - parties are a lovely part of childhood. Poor DS1 hardly gets invited to any and believe me it is a lot more stressful watching the insensitive mums handing out all the invites in front of him and watching his little face as he realises he has been excluded. That is worse than having to go to too many parties IMO.

@ Paddington: I've had similar & DD didn't even change school, just moved from one class to another at start of yr2. Before the move she went to a reasonable number of birthday events, since the move (2.5 yrs ago) only one invite to a birthday event. She thinks of herself as having a great social life & plenty of friends, nonetheless.