to spend nearly £350 on a soft play party for a 3yr old?

[choceyes]

DH thinks so.

DS will be 3 in November and I realy want to have a proper party for him, but our house is too small to accomodate 15 toddlers and their parents (whose house is??).

I want to do a soft play party and it is going to cost £341 for 15 children and 30 adults, inclusive of food, party bags, 2hr of soft play etc. Nothing for us to do but turn up.

Is this a normal price for a party like this? DH thinks we can't afford it. Well money is tight as we pay nearly a grand a month for childcare for two DCs and I only work 3 days a week, so we don't have much spare money.
But DS is invited to a few parties like this and we've never done anything like this. HAd a party at home for his 1st birthday, which was fine, but the kids were a lot younger and more easily entertained.

So AIBU for spending a small fortune on a party for my 3yr old when money is tight, and is it worth it?

It shows how much it pays to do your research

SIL just did DNephew's 4th birthday at softplay. She spent about £80 hiring the entire softplay place, for up to 30 kids, including use of the party room.

Crisps, sandwiches, party ring biscuits, balloons. £15??
MIL made fairy cakes and got some plastic tat for the party bags. £10??
I did cake and party bags. £25??

So a grand total, spread across the family, of £150 quid or so.

purplepidjin, we have a sft play centre near us that offers the same though I think you can have up to 60 kids. Needless to say by 7th birthdays kids would groan upon seeing a funzone invite!

For the kids only, the same in the soft play centre up the road from us would cost a little over £100 (£6.99/head). It would be awkward to feed the adults anyway as the table is set out with chairs for the kids only.

YABU, and a bit off your rocker. All that money for a couple of hours? DS won't appreciate it, won't remember it and neither will any of the other kids - its an age thing. The main issue is you can't afford it anyway, so what on earth is driving you to do this?!

Can we have name and shame of the first party place so we can steer well clear of them. They are being totally unreasonable.

Glad to hear you've found somewhere better.

Thank goodness for MN then, as otherwise parents would be getting ripped off by companies who take advantage of them not realising that this is too expensive.

Glad you found an alternative.

Can i get into trouble for naming the previous place?

They recently have upped all the admission prices, started charging for the adults and limited the play time to 1.5hrs at the weekend from 2hrs previously.

It's in a popular yummy mummy area, so I doubt they would see much of a hit.

Name and shame. Do them good to know that they lost £200 worth of trade.

DH is sensible. Glad you found a cheaper option.

Errr, I was just planning on having a few kids round for tea, music and a few rounds of pass the parcel. I thought that was the norm for 3yo?

dont cater for the adults, they won't expect it!

Name and shame - it's important other parents know that they are charging over the odds. Ridiculous to be charging for adults at a party! Just greedy.

YANBu to want to hold a party for your little one and I am sure he and his friends will enjoy themselves. If you nafford it, then do so and enjoy it. The first place was definitely over charging though.

OP you would never get 30 parents with 15 children. What parents hate more than anything is trekking along to these things, you will get one parent per child max and lots of parents will try to get another one to bring their child with the favour to be reciprocated later. I do think that a reasonable priced soft play party is a good idea though, not much work for you and no mess to clear up. ( had to redecorate my conservatory after walls got stained with jelly one year, and one boy nearly asphixiated with Wotsits stuffed up his nose.)

My SIL had a party for all the kids at nursery. They went to McDonalds.All the kids ate the food, and they had a disco and games.I was sniffy about it but everyone had a good time and they cleared up after you.!

Well it is Head over Heels in Chorlton, Manchester.

I definitely don't want to hold a party at home. Our house is very small and the thought of preparing food for everybody and clearing up afterwards and the stress of entertaining 15 toddlers is not my idea of fun!

All the parents would want to come though as most are close friends. Only a couple of children are at DSs nursery and whose parents we don't really know that well.

Have booked the cheaper place!

We've done a few soft play parties and the dds have been invited to quite a few. That sounds like a rip off. Most places charge between £5 and £10 per child, not including party bags. I would never book a soft play party with somewhere that charged for adults.

I have also hired a hall but found that by the time we bought food, did pass the parcel and hired a bouncy castle, it cost just as much. The children enjoyed it, but it was a lot more work to organise.

I wouldn't. You are mad. IMO of course

she says as a slack parent who didn't even provide a cake for nursery on DTS birthday

I disagree that a 3 year old won't remember the day afterwards, when dd1 was 3 she was excited about her party for ages beforehand, and for months afterwards, she used to ask to see the picture of the bouncy castle she had on her birthday. Not that it matters if they remember it, as long as they have fun at the time.

Hope your ds enjoys his party, OP. It sounds like fun and much better value for money than the other place.

I paid about that for ds 5th party at a soft play. He had about 25 friends though, we definitely didn't cater for the adults. And it included party bags, and an entertainer for when they weren't playing. I found a cheaper soft play the year after which included the same things for about 200 instead. Over 300 IS expensive for a 3 year and only convenient if you can afford it at the time. The luxury of not having to set up/ tidy up, make party bags was brilliant. I didn't even have to cut the cake where I live halls cost between 75-150 per hour to hire anyway.

www.headoverheelsplay.co.uk/

"Head Over Heels is the UK's leading Indoor Play Centre business. "

Eh??? 2 places in manchester does not equate!

Well as most people have said that is overpriced for London. What a ridiculous place, really annoys me that so many businesses try to rip of parents.

So glad you've booked the cheaper place, bet your DH is thrilled!

The power of Mumsnet! Thank goodness you found somewhere cheaper. I thought you were going to say it was somewhere in the leafier parts of London - not bloody Chorlton. The cheek, charging for parents, like you want to spend two hours in a soft play centre. The one I used for DD's 5th birthday was Cheeky Chimps in Lees. They only charged for the children, but you paid more if you wanted exclusive use. They also had an OK cafe where the parents happily spent money on coffees and snacks whilst the children played.

Oooh - I've been there - probably about a year ago though. I remember they had special party and disco rooms but was pretty much the same as every other big soft play.

It seems very expensive. Around here the soft play is about a fiver for 2 hours and I'm guessing about the same per head for a bit of a buffet. So around £150 for the lot. Unless they're doing hot food or something? And the parents won't expect to be fed, surely? I second the 'just turn up' idea and bring your own party bags for them to take away. Surely they'll be too excited to sit down and eat anyway?