School Nativity Ticket Debate

[AnInchOfGrinch]

DS is in reception and this week is his first nativity play. However there has been a bit of a sour atmosphere amongst some. I’m actually on the fence and can see it from both sides, interested to hear thoughts.

Our School has a rule of “two guaranteed tickets per child” for anyone wanting to attend. It’s a reasonably large school with two classes per year so can see the need for this rule - roughly 160 children do the nativity play. This is Reception, Y1, Y2.

if you want any extra tickets they are allocated first come first served and you have to register on a wait list for them. I was delighted to get one so will be going with my DM and MIL.

this rule however obviously causes issues for some. There is a set of twins in the Y2 class and some parents aren’t happy that because of the two tickets per child rule they have four guaranteed tickets a year and grandparents have been able to come every year while some haven’t been able to get a ticket for a step parent every year. Likewise if you have a child in Y2 and a child in reception you will have 4 guaranteed tickets for the play.

I understand the frustration of you are constantly missing out. They only do the nativity for 3 years so I’d be gutted if my DM never got to go to one.

I also think there has to be some sort of rule/way of doing it and if they were trying to make exceptions for everyone it would be a nightmare for the school.

AIBU to think there’s probably no better way of doing it?

All the school needs to do is make it two per family instead of two per child, which eliminates the obvious unfairness re twins.

Then if there are any tickets left over, they get allocated via a waiting list and handed out first come, first served, which is perfectly fair.

SuperBored

@44PumpLane I would say there are lots of wins with twins...you never have children at different schools, you never have different school holidays/inset days for different children, you don't have to spend two different evenings going to nativity/parents evenings/open evenings, or keep abreast of what children in different years are supposed to be learning

You're assuming twins in same school here.....and mine currently are but that may change if my SEN twin can't cope with mainstream middle when it comes!

Also, you're assuming no other siblings.

Our school does daytime parents "evening" so you're right it's a lot more convenient only having to go along once.....but we do get so few of these wins :)

yes twins are hard, but so are two children a year apart

Every twin mum rolling their eyes right now
🤣

It's not that twin parents deserve extra tickets because twins are hard per se... just if you're point is to demand 'fairness', we've probably got a fair few more on our side where we get a harder deal.

So yeah, if on the odd occasion the coin falls in our favour, don't begrudge it. It doesn't happen often!

*your

To those of you saying that the tickets should be allocated per child rather than per family, why should the child who was a friend of one of mine have 2 tickets as an only child whilst his best friend's family would get 10 as he was one of 5? It was a school of nearly 400 pupils but the school hall was the size of a netball court and even with 4 performances there were few spare tickets beyond the 2 per family.