My soon to be 7 ds is having a small birthday at home.
Our house is tiny, so he can only have 4 friends, and we wouldn't be able to accommodate parents (living room only 12ft by 12ft). All his friends have had numerous playdates here, so dropping and leaving won't be an issue, for all but one child's(who has been here loads of time) parents.
Last year, same set up with the party at the house (invitations explained that it was a drop and leave). One child's parents insisted on staying, along with their 2 toddler twins and small baby. I just embarrassedly said "ooh, did ye not read the invite, we are a bit squashed for space". Dad said that they didn't want to leave him alone. Dh said, "that's ok then, why doesn't the missus stay and ye can come back". Both of them just shrugged that off and made themselves comfy.
Their toddlers had a hard time, no space for them to play, the then party goer 6 year olds ran about, having fun, but upsetting the baby, they told everyone off, and finally, the toddlers wrecked havoc on the food. I am not exaggerating - they just flung food out of bowls, etc (lots of this just toddler behaviour, I know), and the parents busied themselves with the sky remote control (asking the children to get out of their way, etc).
The party wasn't alot of fun for those attending, and I swore never again at that time! And now its upon us again.
We have talked about it at length, and I think it would be awful not to invite that boy (other parents have started to do this, as ours was not the only episode, but probably the smallest house!!!).
AIBU if I stand outside the door and refuse to let him in if his parents insist on coming in again? My dh would be inside entertaining (hah!) the others, so they wouldn't be aware/unsupervised. As this family come late to everything, it would be possible to do this.
I really don't know what else to do.