Is this a normal 8 year olds party ?!

[cadburyegg]

Birthday party today for my DC1, 7 kids in total including DC2 and one friend of his I said he could invite too.
I found it sooo chaotic and stressful! Maybe cos it was my first drop off party?! One of my friends (one of the parents) stayed to help but I found the games / activities they finished very quickly and were all very overexcited.
I am quite noise sensitive so I always tell my dc to use their indoor voices etc so it came as a shock that a couple of the older ones were SO loud. I did have to tell them to settle down and stop yelling a few times. They seemed surprised! Fortunately they did run off steam in the garden too.

Is this normal for this age?! How can I make it more manageable next time!? Or are my expectations too high?

Yes normal

It's normal but you know now it's not something you can deal with so you know to arrange a different type of event next time.

Agree, it's the home party and drop off aspect which leads to the chaos!

I never do parties at home and even in venues where it's mainly done for us, I've had to occasionally tell children to stop what they're doing. There's always one...or two who get a bit overexcited!

I also now try to keep parties short. An hour and a half is better than two hours for me

That sounds like an average weekend in our games room! DS is 9 it only get louder, I shut the door and tell them to shout when they are going home. You know that it isn't for you, next time what about taking a select few to a trampoline park or similar

Completely normal. Embrace the chaos. I had my shoe pulled off and thrown at my head at my ds’s party. I probably shouldn’t admit this but I had a gin to take the edge off! Dh was also there and not drinking.

@scrivette
Do you not do the 'put your hand up for silence' thing. They soon catch on and look daggers at their friends who don't!
( Fellow Beaver Leader!) 🦫

Yep - in my experience, normal. We alternated parties at home with booked venue parties for a few years when they were younger. Parties at home were hard work but nice and quite cute. Then we had a 7th birthday party for my eldest son. OMG. The decibel level was through the roof. Luckily (for us, not the neighbours) a lot of it was outside, and we had a lot of good activities to keep them moving and busy, but at one point we were inside playing Chop the Chocolate and it was so loud his little brother had to go and hide outside at the bottom of the garden.

I was chatting to my v elderly next door ex teacher neighbour about it later on and she said she’d had the same experience with hers when they were 7, about 50-60 years ago!

So from then on, parties were out of the house from age 7 upwards. Or just a couple of friends round.

For littler kids parties, I learnt that to get immediate silence, the best thing was to do the special hand clap that the teachers used at school to get the kids to all drop what they were all doing and listen immediately. They’re bound to have one - it worked like magic!! Pavlovian training!

Not sure what your AIBU is, to answer that, but that sounds pretty normal when you get seven 7 6 and 7 year olds together, yes.
It would be a bit odd if they weren't excited, and noisy.

In terms of next year?
You choose -

• pay out loads for them to do this at a venue where you are, in effect paying other staff to entertain them
• invite them round but less of them and think of something that might occupy them for a little while, be that a mass game of rugby / football in the garden or pizza making and then cake decorating or whatever.
• just invite a couple of friends and take them out somewhere

Last year I had 11 10yos & one 4yo & the next day 15 8yos, siblings who wanted separate birthdays. The key is don’t think too much, I set up 2 tvs, 2 games consoles, weather was nice enough they could go outside and play in garden and on trampoline. Only game we played was red light green light outside so they could take some prizes home. Food was pizza, delivered and cleaned up easily a pack of fries in the air fryer and lots of crisps, cakes and a packet of carrot sticks which I only put out to pretend I care about healthy food at a party.

if the kids are outside I sit inside, if they are inside I go outside.

There is absolutely no such thing as a quiet kids party. Be on hand to settle disputes or upset kids but otherwise just let them be. If you can’t then book a location next time.

I'd NEVER do a party at home
Not a chance
Always an organised venue with a timeframe it's much easier then you just walk away no mess or anything in the house either

I would also expect parents to stay at a venue so any issues they are on-hand

I forgot to say, upstairs is completely out of bounds.

I did a traditional party years ago for my ds1 aged 9 or 10. We had 16 boys over, hired a bouncy castle and held it at my Mum's house as she had a huge garden and 2 acres of land. There were 7 adults present including an army major to try to crowd control, it was bedlam,the energy and hyperactivity was incredible . The kids seemed to love it, we organised running races to try to tire them out. The party tea was wolfed down in minutes. Never again, all parties after were held away from home. I would agree, completely normal for the are group.

I’d only have a home party if I had proper entertainment (gaming/directed craft or activity etc) from a proper provider.

8yo are hard work - soft play/trampoline park etc are the way to go.

Lol is that not the point though that the kids can be loud and boisterous and enjoy themselves without having to use indoor voices? (Wtf indoor voices at a party??)
i live having parties here. We clear away anything breakable or precious, put all the dressing up and outdoor toys, nerf guns etc in the garden, set up the gazebo for dancing and pinata and games , and have a big old birthday tea full of sandwiches, sausages, babybels, bowls of crisps and sweets and cakes and biscuits followed by ice cream and jelly. Makes it special and the kids all love it and say they are the best fun parties ever.