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)

Just pay for the invited child plus their adult, and put on the invite that any additional people will have to pay their own admission in.

Ds2 attended a farm party, Dh and Ds2 went in and did the party. Ds1 and myself paid ourselves in separately and went to the play area and then met up with Dh and Ds2 when the party was over. We spent the rest of the day there as a family.

There will be someone or several people who expect you to pay in siblings etc. You need to state on the invite that it is just 1 child and 1 adult.

For each child guest, I think it would be more than reasonable to say 1 adult may accompany each child for free, but if any other adults want to come, then they'll need to pay £3.

As for grandparents and great grandparents 8! , tbh, I wouldn't have invited them all in the first place and would have had a family celebration separately. SEems a bit extreme for 8 GPs to want to attend a child's birthday party at a farm when there will likely already by a lot of adults. You're going to have more adults than children! Kind of changes the dynamic of the birthday party.

I’m a Grandma and I wouldn’t want to go to a farm party along with a crowd of kids and their parents. Don’t invite them!

That’s absolutely normal. One parent free per child. Have never heard of anyone pating for the rest of the family to attend - this is when talking about nursery/ school invites, not close friends, etc.

Seriously, you’ll be so stressed trying to organise the party and manage warring relatives (they’ll all want to squeeze into a tiny party room and expect to be fed). This is not a grandparent friendly event, especially if they can’t behave. One set of grandparents max, and they should be there in the function of helping out. Just ask them seperately if you can pop to theirs and bring a slice of cake for a mini birthday moment.

Ah, but if siblings are included then it’s not clear - is it one free adult per invitee or per each child including siblings?

Totally normal here for farm/softplay/trampoline parties. I didn't put it on invites but sent a WhatsApp a couple of days before with last min instructions and as a reminder and included it then.
I think you are right to pay for the grandparents though OP.

But would people really bring extra parents ?

Maybe state ‘we have assumed for catering and logistics 1 adult per child ‘

As one of a large group of grandparents (our grands also average 6-8 grandparents :D) I would expect to pay for ourselves and would offer.

I would say one free adult per invited child who you are happy to pay for, most families won't bring two adults. I would pay for the relatives though, they're only going because it's your DCs birthday party it's not like they'd go anyway.

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.
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But if you are talking about your sons grandparents then you should pay for them because presumably you invited them

Idont but why would you even go, yes if it's your dgc party but a friend of your dc?

Because this is about paying for the grandparents of the OP's children. Not the grandparents of visiting children. :) OP said 3 quid for any adult over 1 per child AND then there's the issue of her child's grandparents of which they have 8 (including ggrands).

I had a similar issue, but it was £10 per ticket for adults. I said one adult per family, and did include all siblings. People were happy with that, as far as I know.