My five year old was abandoned at an organised party

[KattyB]

My husband took our five year old boy to a birthday party for two of his school friends in the local sports hall yesterday and when he came back to collect him, (five minutes late) all of his friends and their parents had left. There was another party going on afterwards, but my child was, well, abandoned. Not only that, but he actually managed to get outside the hall and was ?waiting for daddy? in the car park.

To say that I am angry is a little bit of an understatement and what could have happened doesn?t bear thinking about.

Don?t know the mums at all well and don?t have their phone numbers ?. Should I 'throw the book' at the venue???? What would you do?

How many times can people post the same things?

"no party could be emptied under 5 minutes"

"well mine ended early"

Ad infnitum, ad nauseum

So how was it possible for a party to be cleared up in 5 minutes?

Whyyyyiiiioughta....

IMO to 5 is too young to just leave.

Your Ds probably gave the whole party the slip when going to the loo or something and was unaccounted for at the party bag --madness- end.

It's up to parents - including dads - to keep an eye on their own child in these playcentres, even if they say the party is organised by the centre - your child still needs you to be there.

Hope your DS is OK.

fule let me spell it out for hard of thinking.seeing it troubles you
been to too many infant parties,and none have ever cleared in 6min
none
nada
and judging by many folks on here,same for tehm
....if folks keep habitually posting same response maybe there's something in our shared experience eg parties we have attended dont clear in 6min

now as for op,well its horrid her wee boy was scared and in a car park.a discussion to be had ongoing with dh and host

Yes scottishmummy, you've said

Op isn't coming back. This thread is just a load of circular arguments now. Shame.

I once cleared up a party in 4 minutes and 59 seconds.

you see kule you can pull humphy wee face as you wish
but it smacks of la la la youre not listening

unless you are aware of rule that posts must not disagree with you,and appear tobe circular

BluddyMoFo, I appreciate that the party I referred to was for a 9 year old, and the party in this case was for a 5 year old, but most parties I have been to at soft play centres have been completely over by the official finishing time. If a party is scheduled to last from 12 - 2pm, the children will play from 12 -1, have a meal at 1pm then be allowed to continue playing. The parents organising the party will pack up presents etc, while the play centre employees will clear away the remains of the food and prepare the room for the next party. The children will be asked to return to the party room at about 1.45, when they will put their shoes back on and be given their party bags and be ready to be collected by their parents as soon as they arrive. If things go to plan, one set of children will be going and the next set arriving at 2pm and the play centre will maximise the number of parties being held on one day and also their profits!!

I once held a party that was over before it began.

Can I just say...

This party was in a sports hall.

The only thing to 'clear up' are the kids and the presents.

THe party is supervised by staff so the presents got loaded to the car while the games were happening.

Therefore the end of the party is a hand out of party bags and sending children off (or directing them to the car park and legging it - whatever your style is).

It's not like they had washing up and cake removal from carpet to see to.

That is all.

I think I'd feel somewhat cross, and some of that crossness would definitely be directed towards DH for being late.

Not necessarily HappyDoll. As I said 346 posts ago, when my friend had a party for her DD at a sports hall, she had a party room where she provided all the food. So we had to clean up at the end of it and it took a lot longer than five minutes.

I hope you're paying attention AnyFuleKnow

It is entirely irrelevant whether the party was cleared up in 5 minutes or not, or how late the OP's dp was.

A child was left unsupervised. That is not acceptable even if you have done all the clearing up and/or the parent picking up is late.

I strongly suspect that this was a huge cock-up - I find it very hard to believe that anyone would deliberately leave a 5-year-old unsupervised in a public place, so something obviously went wrong at pick-up time. If it were my child, I would have contacted the party parents at once to find out what had happened, and to let them know that something had gone badly wrong.

I don't think it necessarily happened at pick up time. The boy had the whole party to wander off. Anyone who thinks a couple of adults can constantly watch 30 5 yos is naive imo. And you wouldn't be able to do a headcount every 2 minutes with the kids all running around. The only way you could guarantee no kids went astray would be to hold the party in a locked room.

I made the point that it isn't like a school trip not because I don't think party hosts should care about kids as much as teachers but because teachers look after kids day in day out. You can also be sure that on a school trip the legal minimum number of adult supervisers will be present depending on the number and age of children. You have no such guarantee at parties which is why as a parent you need to find out that information before you decide whether or not to leave your child. Yes the hosts should take care of that side of things but not everyone is responsible and the parents can't just take the attitude that there aren't enough parents there but fuck it - it's the hosts problem.

Any sign of the OP? Surely she will have found out what happened by now from her son.