To provide parents some food at kids party

[nurseynursery]

So son is 6 tomorrow, party at church hall, parents still stay, 11am to 1pm, I've bought some sandwiches, crisps and cupcakes and will also provide tea, coffee and soft drinks for parent. My husband thinks this is ridiculous and is quite annoyed, I thought it was a nice thing to do and any leftovers we can eat tomorrow afternoon as I certainly won't be cooking! Is it so unusual? I don't want to look like I'm trying to out do other parents!

DD's 2nd birthday was in a village hall, mid morning so we just put out a huge box of biscuits for the parents to help themselves to, along with teas and coffees.

DD was invited to a 3rd birthday party and the parents ordered a load of takeaway pizzas for the parents, as well as providing Prosecco, beer and soft drinks.

I’ve always provided for parents.

Totally standard. Every party I ever went to at "parent have to stay" age had food for the kids and the adults.

I’d definitely do tea and coffee as a minimum. Snacks are a nice extra and I always appreciated it when mine were younger.

Given the timing of the party YANBU. Very considerate of you. If the party were, eg 2-4pm I wouldn’t bother as the parents would have just had lunch. Would always do drinks though

In my experience its about half and half as to whether food is provided for parents. Some provide nothing, most provide tea/coffee and maybe biscuits or a slice of cake, one or two had food for the adults. I catered for the adults too when hosting my young child's birthday party but that's partly my upbringing (you absolutely could not cross my mum's threshold/door without being offered something to eat) plus I was usually disorganised enough when attending other children's parties with my DC that I hadn't eaten beforehand and was usually pretty hungry - I didn't want any parents at my party to be hungry! It costs more of course, but I've already committed to spending a fair sum by having a party at all and I'd feel like a bad host if I didn't offer them food too.

Have always done a separate little stand up food corner or table for parents - houmous, breadsticks or a baguette sliced, nice crisps, brie, crackers, grapes, plum tomatoes etc. Maybe one tray of choc mini rolls or those little Thorntons squares - whatever's on offer. Big bottle supermarket sparkling water. A token spread though, not huge quantities. Costs £10 - £ 15 from Aldi. Nothing to prepare, just unwrap/rinse fruit and put out with very small paper plates and napkins/cups.

Gets everyone talking and socialising and breaks the monotony of 2 hours in a village hall/soft play. If the venue does coffee, I usually leave them to buy their own, unless very small group, as that can easily add another £30 to the party bill.

Baffled by all these patents staying for parties. Everyone here dumps and runs. Obviously not when they're babies but from age 4/5 onwards.
I'm in NI though and live in a smallish town. Parties are generally in local halls. Though if it's soft play out of area I drop him off too and go somewhere else for a coffee. DS will be 5 soon and I'm just assuming parents won't be hanging about.

Yanbu. I provided French stick and nibbles for parents.

I think that sounds normal. Has your husband been to many children’s parties?

DH took 3yr old DS to a party from 11-4.30, there was a party lunch box with 1/4 of a sandwich, some organix rice cakes and a handful of chopped veg for DS and that was it. The parents were ravenous by the time the cake came out! DH takes a packed lunch with him if he has to stay at parties now.

If we have the party in the summer and in our garden, we always cater for everyone and I usually invite parents anyway. There's generally enough food to feed an army and we do a bbq.
In winter, we tend to do birthday parties at our soft play centre. Parents who are staying are welcome to just order stuff and add it to the table. (They tend to be very reasonable and I haven't had anyone be cheeky with it.) We also usually have enough food ordered for the table anyway.
If you have parents staying, I think it's nice to consider their needs as well and to make them feel welcome.

That's perfect as the party is 11-1pm. If it were 2-4pm then a drink and biscuit would be fine.

I'm sure it will be much appreciated.

Thanks all. My husband does his fair share of parties but not many of them have provided food at all so he thinks it's a bit overkill. I'm not buying champagne and caviar or anything so hopefully won't look to 'try hard'. Any tips on small talk with parents would be appreciated though...... help

Do they all know they are expected to stay? Because I wouldn't expect that at a 6 year olds party and if you didn't tell me, I wouldn't be planning on it.

So far they've all stayed at all parties, I don't mind either way.

Quite normal for kids parties I go to provide food and drink for the parents, but food is normally snacky bits rather than a full meal. We did pizza at my daughter's last party so ordered a whole load extra so adults could have a slice or two, as well, but only because it was from a nice pizza place and there was no way I could give it to the kids without wanting some myself! We also had crisps/snacks, soft drinks and some alcoholic drinks.

YANBU

Its not necessary but unless your particularly short on money its not really something to get annoyed about.

At my favorite birthday party the host put on tea and scones with jam and cream for the parents 😋

I always did for my kids parties. And most I had to sit through did too. It's only a few extra bits as quite a few will probably nibble anything left on their dc's plate.
At the very minimum they'll need a drink. It's not fun when you're stuck in a room with 30+ other kids and a load of grown ups all wishing they could leave to get a coffee!

I'd be aghast if I had to stay at a 6 year old child's party. Why don't the parents leave?? It's the perfect opportunity to grab a coffee somewhere nice, surely? But if I felt forced to stay because every other parent was hanging around, I'd definitely appreciate food.

Every party we’ve been to provided Prosecco or champagne for parents and birthday cake. We’ve always done the same. Even if they don’t stay, they’re invited to come 20-30 mins early to collect so they can have a drink and cake. We’ve always offered cake and food to any siblings coming to collect with parents and offered cake home.