Party rules for 5 year old

[Timeisflyingby]

Dc turns 5 in the summer.

How far in advance should you send out party invites? How long should the party last, is two hours too short? What are the best types of parties for 5 year olds?

See now that these are not exactly rules 🤷🏻‍♀️😅

Based on the ones we have attended, two hours is fine. Most of them are held at soft play centres, they do a deal that includes food and you bring your own cake/party bags. One really savvy mum just brought a slab of fruit shoots and a few huge boxes of crisps which I thought was a good idea.

I would say two/three weeks is a reasonable amount of notice for invitations. Tbh we have no social life so less than a week is fine too 😆 I hope your DC has a lovely time.

I'd send invites maybe 3 or 4 weeks in advance.

Soft play parties are good or a bouncy castle and entertainers in a village hall.

We did DDs 5th at home, traditional games etc was very stressful!

2 hours is the usual. An hour playing 30 minutes eating and cake, 30 minutes planned game and goodbyes.

I would send out invites approx 4-5 weeks beforehand. 2 hours is perfect. At that age I think soft play works well, or if you have a local sports centre that does active parties (football or trampolining or multi sports).

Ooh but I've just re-read that your child's birthday is in the summer so lots of notice (3/4 weeks) is probably a good idea.

Mums of my DC's school pals (age 6) seem to send out invitations exactly 4 weeks ahead, so that's what we did too. HOWEVER we've had a couple of invitations this week for parties that will be in the summer holidays so parents are trying to gauge how many kids will be around/able to come.

Parties have almost all been softplay - we did it too - so much easier, kids run about for an hour and then eat some pizza and chips in the 'party room'. Bring cake and party bags and that's that!

2 hours is defiantly the right length. For invitations is say send them out between 2-4 weeks before the party. Any further ahead than a month and you’ll find people think it’s so far ahead they’ll deal with it another day then forget all about it.

Soft play parties that my DD has attended have always gone well, entertainment is sorted as they just go wild and play and these Center disallowed do a package of food so all you need to do is cake and party bags (if you do them)

We have also hired a community hall type venue and hired a bouncy castle and done the food ourselves. My DD also attended a similar party where they hired an entertainer that did disco, games, magic tricks and balloon animals. With this type you tend to have to think of everything you’ll need and take it with you and be quite organised. Bin bags, wipes, decorations, music ect. It’s defiantly not for everyone.

Other parties my DD has been to are trampoline park parties (similar set up as soft play)

Hope this helps! Good luck with your party planing.

2 hours is fine.

If in a hall be like fruit shoot slab mum with some sandwiches and easy peelers, maybe some apples and mini bags of haribo. Music, maybe an entertainer if budget can stretch.

If in a soft play centre, you only need to do cake (some do party bags for supplement)

Because it's a summer birthday start getting phone numbers now so you can message nearer the time. Lots of people won't rsvp until the week/few days before and some will lose the invites if you do too many weeks in advance.

2 hours with 4 weeks notice is standard here. As is setting up a WhatsApp group to ensure that the parents know their dC is invited and can reply. They can then leave if they can’t make it. It also meant I could ask about food allergies etc. we’ve done hire a hall and DH runs games but getting a professional entertainer seems more common (DS2 wasn’t having it, poor DH!).

Two hours is standard here.
People send out Save the Dates a couple of months ahead (it's all hired halls here, so they send them out once the hall is booked). Then a WhatsApp invite/reminder at 4 wks before and 1 wk before.
Everyone here has done an entertainer in a hired hall, or bouncy castle in hired hall. Avoided soft play/venues with party packages as they tend to be stricter with numbers. Generally siblings always welcome, so hard to predict numbers.

For summer birthdays some people have done party in a park, just paying for food. But I've avoided that for my May born DD as the weather is too unpredictable. We've also scheduled it to avoid the weekends before/after May half term even though that's when her birthday is, she wants a big turnout so not fair on friends who might be on holiday.

We send out invites about 4-6 weeks before, 2 hours works fine, depends on what child is into, but village hall parties with entertainers (or home if you have space) or pre-set parties at soft plays work well at that age with maybe 10-15 kids invited x

2 hours is standard in our neck of the woods too with invites out about 4 weeks in advance. Usually soft play or similar and was whole class parties at that age.

How do I make my own digital invitation?

Send a text?

I'd send them about 4 weeks in advance
Gives people a chance to reply.
Two hours is average, definitely not too short.
Any longer your head will be done in and you'll have a room full of over stimulated, on the verge of meltdown kids pumped full of sugar to boot 😁
Mine loved soft play parties at that age and so did most of their friends- you get an hour of jumping and climbing, running around and then an hour in the party room where you go sit down to a party food buffet and cake and happy birthday sing song 🙂

I’m going to send the invitation by text but how do make one of those invitations to send?

I used Canva - the app is free and I just used one of the free templates. I don't have an artistic bone in my body and it was totally straightforward. Otherwise I think you can buy digital invitation templates on Etsy - one of DC's friends had a completely bonkers and OTT (but brilliant) one that was like a movie trailer, and his mum said she got it on Etsy.

A month beforehand is fine, I'd ask to RSVP by a specific date though even if the booking doesn't rely on exact numbers as I've found people more likely to reply then. Id send a friendly reminder the week before along the lines of x is looking forward to celebrating with y on z date and time at wherever it is.

2 hours is more than enough, at that age a hall is fine and I'd keep food and party bags simple.

If it's in school holidays don't expect lots to come , it's really off the radar , you'd need contact details for all parents ideally, WhatsApp better than text for keeping track and you can always ask "Alfie's " mum to add "Jessie's " mum to the group
I'd say you only need to do one big invite all party for the class, sometimes 6 is better to do this as you've sussed it all out. Maybe do before they break up? Share with another child then can really go to town?
In summer you could send message to see who is free , if not many available then could take a handful to local attraction instead?