For talking at a children's party?

[Dancergirl]

Dd3 went to a party today, the birthday girl turned 4 and most of the children were around the same age so most mums stayed (including me). It was in a small hall with an entertainer.

Most of the children were sitting on the floor in the middle and the mums sitting on chairs round the edge, the usual sort of thing. I was chatting to a couple of mums I know well, catching up after the summer etc. There was an older lady sitting next to my friend and at one point I thought she said 'shhh'. Anyway we didn't pay much attention. Then a while later I was in the middle of saying something to my friend when this lady turned to me and said, quite forthrightly, 'it you want to talk loudly why don't you go outside'....!

We were so gobsmacked we sat practically in silence after that. Now I know it's a annoying when people are talking in the cinema, theatre etc and I would never do that..but a children's party?? And I really don't understand what we were stopping her from hearing - the entertainer was v loud.

AIBU?

YANBU. Maybe she missed out on parties when she was younger and wanted to make the most of it. Or she is mad. Or maybe your conversation was just bloody boring

Perhaps the entertainer was loud to drown out the gossiping women!

Perhaps this lady was trying to enjoy the entertainment too, and didnt want to hear you lot instead of it..

YABU

It sounds as though you were too loud. Why didn't you go elsewhere to talk?

Sounds as if you could have been interrupting the entertainment(you said it was a small hall). Would have been best to go out for a bit or chat another time eg when food being dished up. Entertainers even rubbish ones can cost a fortune. IMO and you did ask yes YABU.

rude to talk over the entertainer

YABU. I'm a party entertainer and it's a hard enough job without having to make yourself heard over talking adults. Do you find it hard to watch a TV programmme with someone talking in the background? Same for kids trying to enjoy their entertainment.

It is a nightmare to try to entertain a group of children in a hall over the sound of mother's gossiping. Often you end up not being able to hear the children properly and it makes it much harder to keep their attention if there is lots of noise.

I think sometimes people don't realise how the sound of half a dozen mums chatting makes it so hard for the entertainer.

Sorry, OP. Another one who ran children's parties for years and got so p**d off with having to shout at the kids over the top of the parent's gossiping that we banned all parents except those of the birthday child(ren). Kids were 7+ and we supplied extra volunteers so safety no issue. We had the occasional child who didn't like being left but then we did a 'soft drop' thing - parent could hover for a while but should leave as soon as their kid became settled. Plus the children were used to being left at school so it wasn't a problem.
The kids were almost always far easier to manage than the visiting parents, so we ditched the parents.

Depends on the entertainer. If it was one of those using a microphone thing then I can't see why you talking would matter.

YABU. I've run games and entertainment at my sons parties and had trouble trying to raise my voice loud enough for the children to hear me. Although the parents were only chatting between themselves it did end up as quite a loud background noise. My mum wanted to tell them to keep it down but DH asked her not to as he thought they may be offended.

YABU. It's rude to ignore the entertainer and talk while the show is going on - you're making yourself more important than them. If others could hear it, you were detracting from their enjoyment too. Well done to the old lady for speaking up!

YABU

If she had to pull you up on it, you were too loud.

YABU

YABU. I've seen this (parents talking loudly) lots of times at childrens' parties and I think it's very rude.

i would say yabu - the children wouldnt have been allowed to talk. they would have been listening - and so should you

YABU

I love the sense of entitlement you all had, that you were openmouthed at being told to be quiet.

Someone had paid a lot of money for that hall and entertainment. They didn't pay it so that you and your friends could gossip as loudly as you wanted.

You have plenty of time to catch up after the summer with your dull chatter at the school gates. It was a childrens party and it wasn't the time or place.

YABU to talk when the entertainer was on. The party was for the children to have a good time not to catch up on gossip. The parents had paid for the entertainer and you should at least had the respect to keep quiet and them do their job.

Well, I must admit I am v surprised! But I'll take on board what's been said.

I've been taking my dds to parties for years and hosted a fair few too. In my experience with a hall/entertainer party you always have a few mums chatting round the periphery. It's certainly never bothered me at any parties I've hosted. We're not talking the party being disrupted or the entertainer not being heard, just a bit of chatting.

Come to think of it, I sometimes take a bit of the paper to read while the party's going on but a couple of times I realised I was being a bit anti-social as everyone else was chatting!

How strange. But I'll keep quiet in future. Thanks all.

anyone else amazed at total unanimity

OP AIBU?
us: Yup
OP: okay then

nice end to the day

Hey, I'll always admit when I'm in the wrong! Just v surprised, that's all.

Fair play to you then...'Poster Responds Reasonably To Being Roasted In AIBU Shocker'- you don't see that very often

You do realise though, that loads of people will only read your OP, and you'll get another three pages of abuse?

X-posts, Woof