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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

127 replies

choceyes · 06/09/2011 11:40

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?

OP posts:
AppleyEverAfter · 06/09/2011 17:02

Oops didn't see you'd found it cheaper. Well done OP!

MsScarlettInTheLibrary · 06/09/2011 17:06

YABU

For a 3yo birthday party, we hired the local hall (£4.50 per hour inc kitchen) did a buffet (for adults and kids, cost about £35) made a cake, got some balloons, borrowed a bubble machine, did some party bags, etc. Then some classic games. Everyone is happy for about £70 MAX. And it can be much cheaper than that if you want it to be. Just a few hours spent icing and making sandwiches the night before, it's hardly a gigantic effort - certainly much less effort than earning a few hundred quid.

notcitrus · 06/09/2011 17:19

Glad you found somewhere cheaper - been reading as I'm about to host a party for my 3yo.
Do you need to invite that many children? All my family and friends with older kids are telling me the rule of thumb is invite 1 child per year of child's age, plus up to 3 more. So am having ds and dn, neighbour, and 4 from nursery, not the whole roomful.

And hoping that it's sunny enough to use the garden as house isn't very big!

I've been to a soft play party which was quite fun for 2-3yos and a nice bunch of parents who travelled there, but the same place generally caters for yummy mummies (Wimbledon) and I've been there when other parties have happened - kids are mostly fine, it's the minimum two parents with cameras and each one getting in the way and being competitive that makes it a nightmare for everyone else!

MorelliOrRanger · 06/09/2011 18:19

Huh, we paid for children invited only to our soft play party. Parents were free and if they wanted to bring other children they had to pay for them themselves.

£350 is alot of money for a party bearing in mind it's average is £10 per child.

rhondajean · 06/09/2011 18:21

No judgement on whether you should or not, but it is veyr expensive, our local soft plays come in between 7 and 9 pounds per child for entrance and meal, use of the party room, some entertainment (face painting and wee "disco"). I would not pay that - its over £20 per child. Normally they dont charge for adults, just if they eat from the cafe.

If you want to spend that much, you could have a MUCH better party than soft play.

MorelliOrRanger · 06/09/2011 18:24

Whoops teach me to read the whole thread. Glad you are using someone else. That is a ridiculous venue to charge that much and then not let you take your own cake.

caughtinanet · 06/09/2011 18:37

Now that I have had a look at the website on which they describe themselves as an "Indoor Play Center" they are most definitely unreasonable.

purplepidjin · 06/09/2011 18:48

Caughtinanet, I was distinctly unimpressed by the inability to decide if they were American or English Wink

caughtinanet · 06/09/2011 18:50

And purple, if you can bear to read the paragraph you will see that they also can't decide whether it's "its" or "it's" so have hedged their bets with one of each Grin

purplepidjin · 06/09/2011 20:50

My eyes were bleeding long before I got to that bit Grin

OnceICaughtAFishAlive · 06/09/2011 20:56

I haven't read the other responses but quickly wanted to respond to you, OP. Are you going to a soft play place that also charges adults entry fees? There is one near us that does this, and their quote for my DS 3rd was £400 (!). I have gone to another in the area and it is £8.99 per child so it is costing me £135 for 15 kids (no charges for the adults), this included 2hrs play, food & party games for the children. I will do my own party bags, and get a cake from costco (£12 for a massive and tasty birthday cake).

OnceICaughtAFishAlive · 06/09/2011 20:58

oh and there is always the option of hiring a church hall, round here thats about £50, and you can do your own entertainment and food, or hire a indoor bouncy castle.

ChablisLover · 06/09/2011 20:59

We have these for ds and his friends parties. I pay for kids and food plus some tea/coffee for adults as well as a platter of sandwiches for them. Costs no more than £80. And that is expensive enough for me. Also most parties, the kids are that excited and don't eat all of the food so the adults end up eating it.

Remember not every child will bring 2 parents - u could end up with a lot of wastage.

OnceICaughtAFishAlive · 06/09/2011 21:03

Ha I have now caught up on the thread and the play centre that gave me the £400 quote was the branch Wilmslow... what a small world

LiegeAndLief · 06/09/2011 21:14

You could check out your local pre-schools - one near us hires out for parties at the weekend. £30 for 4 hours and you can use their kitchen, outside play equipment and all the toys inside. It was brilliant.

mummytowillow · 06/09/2011 21:20

2 hours and it costs that much! Shock

I had my daughters 4th birthday a couple of weeks ago, soft play centre, 15 kids, everything including party bags for £150. I just had to bring a cake!

I absolutely did not do food for the adults, its two hours, most adults can last that long without food! Wink

you can use my garden for £100 ... its huge! Grin

Original poster
choceyes · 07/09/2011 09:34

Thanks for all your replies!

Can i just say again, that that £341 did NOT include food for the parents, just to ATTEND. What an absolute rip off!
I am tempted to call them back and tell them no where else has this policy and they are being greedy greedy greedy.

And the place I have booked for £7.50 a child, is for EXCLUSIVE use just for us too. They only open at weekend for parties, and general softplay during the week. It's smaller than the other place, but that's even better for us, as the other place is so busy and noisy during the week anyway.

OP posts:
BimboNo5 · 07/09/2011 09:36

So they were charging adults for what? Oxygen? Floor space? Email them this thread and they will see how few people would be willing to book a party there!

ExitPursuedByATroll · 07/09/2011 10:23

They really are taking the piss aren't they. Charging parents for the privilege of staying with their child at a party.

porcamiseria · 07/09/2011 11:27

can you afford it?

yes, do it
no, book a chruch hall and hite a bouncy castle

I will spend nearly £400 on DS2 baptism but I have deiced for various reasons its worth it (that includes my hair and dress budget too Grin

littlemisssarcastic · 07/09/2011 11:27

Is this the same place where they charge £3.50 for the adults at the parties?
Where 6 adults can go for free at parties? Whoopdidoo but they also charge £2.99 each for the party bags? Shock

I think they will find the following months very quiet unless they change their pricing policy.

porcamiseria · 07/09/2011 11:28

I absolutely did not do food for the adults, its two hours, most adults can last that long without food!

I hate parties thjat dont cater for adults, HATE THEM!!! at least some crisps and a glass of wine FFS

mrjellykeepskidsquiet · 07/09/2011 13:16

I personally think that is way to much.

sazm · 07/09/2011 13:25

my dd had her 4th birthday at a huge soft play place,it was after hours so a couple of pounds dearer than normal,but we had the place to ourselves,it cost £7 per child,including food,there were 28 kids there,the adults just get their own tea/coffee/food.
a hall is usually about £20 for a couple of hours,£20 for food/cake for them all,bouncy castle £50 ish,and you still need to do party bags - when we worked it out it wasnt much cheaper than the soft play place,and i had no hassles of organisinf stuff/amusing the kids:)

TheGoddessBlossom · 07/09/2011 13:29

Sorry haven't read whole thread but I have just done a soft play party for my 5 year old son:

up to 50 kids (had 23)
exclusive use of soft play for 90 minutes
cake
pizza and juice (10 pizzas)
invitations

£200

only caveat was that it was 5.30pm - 7pm which may be too late for some.