To ask parents to pay for themselves?

[DragonMummy1418]

For my DS's birthday party we are thinking of Booking him a party at a farm, obviously we'd pay for the children and each child can bring one adult free of charge but additional adults are £3.

Wibu to mention this on the invites and ask parents to pay for themselves if they are both coming?

There's also all the grandparents who would want to go (he has 8 including great grandparents so it would work out as quite an extra stamp on the bill)

Well in principle YANBU but I think not paying for family is a bit tight.

That's fine. I wouldn't expect to rock up with the family and be paid for.

Pay for the party or do something else. Invite fewer people.

When we did this at the farm we paid for everyone. It would have been too awkward otherwise. We discussed it but at the end of the day drew the conclusion that we had offered them to our DS birthday party- so to expect them to pay for themselves seemed wrong.

It’s up to you, but it was your choice to have it at the farm.

You’ll get a mixed reaction on here.

Good luck.

I would just say on the invite numbers are restricted to one adult per child which is free of charge but additional adult tickets if both parents want to attend with their child is £3.
It's £3. It's not like it's £15.
Although my husband and I would be arguing about who didn't have to go to be honest.

Agree with JustmarriedBecca :) Just pop it on the invites

I think one free adult per child is reasonable. But do you also need to spell out that you're not paying for siblings?

Depends how old the children at the party will be and if you are happy supervising a group of that age without their parents around. For example a group of 20 3yr olds would be a nightmare & you wo7ld need their parents there but a group of 20 6yr olds is much more manageable

I think you should pay, but I personally hate these types of invites. Who wants to spend their day off with a load of other families that you don't know ? My dd got invited to a big museum for a 'party' once, it was over and hour away and I would have had to pay £15 for myself and parking all day. No thanks, couldn't think of anything worse than walking around with a load of other parents and their kids. Keep farm for family only and do a normal party for kids

I would say plus one adult on invites but pay for his grandparents myself :)

Why would the great-grandparents want to come to a farm party for DS and friends? Surely it’s better to invite his friends and one parent to the farm and then have a family get-together separately?

We had a birthday party for our DC at a farm in recent years, all children’s tickets included one adult too. We included on the invite that siblings and additional adults could attend (everyone got the whole day there after - it was huge with rides, soft play etc) but there would be an £X charge. I didn’t even think about it Everyone had a lovely time and people have gone in to book if for their DC since.

why do the parents even need to come?

You should pay for family at least.

I think make it clear on the invites that its child plus one adult. Definitely pay for family. Your 8 grandparents are £24. Whats the party costing you? Surely thats only a small %?

I think you either pay for everyone, or just do the farm as a family day out and have another party elsewhere for DS.

I’ve been to lots of parties at our local children’s farm and the invite always says admits one guest plus one adult, and makes it clear others need to be paid for. No one has ever quibbled! Some people do bring the other DC or their OH brings them later and they make a family day out of it. Paying for the extra people themselves.

How old are the DC?

Have been to one of these and it was a lot dearer than £3 to get entry and we paid it with a smile.

The party is for the child, the parent goes along to supervise said child. If they want to turn it into a family thing then they can stump up the additional entry. No one in my circle of experience would bat an eyelid at that.

If parents have to stay because of the age then YABU

Just take him to the farm yourselves and do something else with his friends.

It's fine to say 1 gree adult per child but do you mean you'll be charging ds' own grandparents to attend his party?? If I've understood correctly that's definitely not on.

Our dc have been to lots of playfarm parties, it always says one parent per child, it's standard. We also argue about who gets to not go

You should pay for grandparents though if you want them there. Why don't you just have a separate family gathering though?

How many people haven’t actually read the post!

She said each child gets one free adult! To then bring along the rest of their family to have a day out paid by someone else would be very cheeky!

Put on the invite that the child gets an adult in free. Additional adults/children are very welcome at a cost of £3 each.

I don’t understand why posters are saying pay for everyone.
Op is inviting their dc’s friends not their entire extended families.

I can understand allowing (needing??) additional adults to this kind of party as I can’t imagine OP would want to look after a large group in a venue like that but if invited children then bring their entire family it would change the focus of the event.

I don’t think there’s any issue with clarifying on the invitations that invitations are for the named guest only and each invited guest will be able to bring one adult but any extra siblings or adults will need to be paid for in line with the venues normal rates.

The children will be 3/4 year olds, I can't imagine the parents wanting to leave them. Siblings are included.
I'll put one parent per child on the invites and pay for the grandparents.