To be foaming about kids’ Christmas party?

[O6bftdff]

I took my four year old nephew to a Christmas party yesterday at the golf club. It was really well done. They’d hired a soft play section, had Santa, balloons, drawing, a little buffet. Really good.

But then they had the party games and I’m still a bit annoyed about it (and yes, I know they’re children). First up was pass the parcel. I sat behind DN when he joined the ‘big kids’ circle (there was a separate one for the babies) and off we went. The same girl, about six or seven, kept getting the parcel handed to her and just sitting with it and staring straight ahead. She was next to a small boy of maybe three who wasn’t old enough to understand to take it. It only moved when the other older kids started shouting at her to pass it. She won three times.

Then we play corners and obviously the kids who are in whichever corner is called go out of the game. Some kids who kept going out kept just rejoining, and of course one of them won.

Pass the parcel again and this time all the babies and older children in one big circle with two parcels circulating. Im next to DN again and a woman to our left has maybe a one year old on her knee. The cheating girl is to her left. Once again the cheating girl just sits with the parcel and the woman with the baby is too talking to a friend behind her that the girl sits with the parcel and wins another two times. Meanwhile, on the other side of the circle a boy of six or seven just sits with the other parcel until the music stops. The other kids complain he’s cheating to the organiser, who just ignores them.

Finally the music stops on my DN just as he’s going to hand over the parcel, but he still had hold of it. The five year old next to him is with her DM. The girl was ignoring him, the music stopped, and the woman took it from him and said ‘that’s yours, DD’. I didn’t say anything but wish I had. I felt so sorry for him.

I don’t blame the kids, they’re kids, but surely if you’re either taking a child or organising a children’s party you should be making sure your kids aren’t cheating and the cheaters aren’t continuously winning? I know it’s only a game and a kids’ one at that but the blatant rewards for cheating wound me right up.

Finally the music stops on my DN just as he’s going to hand over the parcel, but he still had hold of it. The five year old next to him is with her DM. The girl was ignoring him, the music stopped, and the woman took it from him and said ‘that’s yours, DD’. I didn’t say anything but wish I had.

'Please give that parcel back to my nephew' would have been a good thing to say.

Me taking bubbles from a child isn’t the same as telling your own kid to pass the parcel along.

I just live in a constant state of fury.

surely you should have been either fuming or frothing at the mouth. Or have I missed a new way of being cross?

Eh?

Sure. What about the rest?

Ewwwwwww

I hated pass the parcel as a kid for the exact same reasons you describe.

Kids holding onto and refusing to relinquish the parcel in the hope of the music stopping made me irrationally upset

You didn’t speak up either. YABU.

We’ve actually stopped doing pass the parcel at the community Christmas party because of this and for corners they are given a chewy sweet when out which helps out the rejoiners 😁

I think we have changed the way we play games and quietly phased out most of the down to one winner games. So play more pin the nose on the snowman game with everyone’s name on a sticker, unambiguous. Marco Polo, no winners type games.

I was at a Christmas party for a group I volunteer at a couple of weeks ago. They were playing musical statues and one of the girls asked to go to the toilet. She has done this previously so that she can rejoin when there are few people left and potentially win so when she came back in the organiser wouldn't let her rejoin.

DN wasn’t cheating.

Because it’s cheating! Nothing irrational about it 😅

This is the generation we are creating. Me me me and fuck everyone else

I think I'd have stopped hovering over DN, and started looming over the cheat!

A firm and cheery, "Pass it on!" usually works. Alternatively, just take it from her and pass it on.

Really though, whoever was in charge of the music should have had enough sense to make sure it stopped on every child at least once!

Some children will try to hold onto parcels or sneak back into games they've been put out of, but it's the job of the organising adult to manage the process. Anyone who's been in charge of stopping the music for pass the parcel or spotting who's moving in a game of musical statues knows the rules and knows that it's bloody stupid to let the same children win repeatedly.

Not so much the kids' fault, sounds badly run.

Every time I've seen pass the parcel at kids parties ( observing as an adult) it's been rigged so everyone got a turn to win, and if there weren't enough layers anyone who didn't win got a sweet at the end anyway.

The organiser had her back turned to the kids so it was fair. Except it wasn’t. I can’t do kids’ parties any more, can’t cope with the lack of rules regulation.

But you had the opportunity to say something when DN missed out due to cheating.

Due to the mother taking it after the child hadn’t paid attention. They weren’t cheating, they were fannying on and not paying attention.

Yes, but there’s more bubbles !!

I presume the children enjoyed it:

Actually this is cathartic. It also was immensely irritating when the mothers of the little babies were using the babies’ hands to try and grab the present from one child to transfer to the next. Took about twenty minutes to do one pass. Blood pressure was through the roof.

There needs to be a clear explanation of rules and expectations so everyone can enjoy a bit of organised fun.

Wouldn’t mind but DN said pass the parcel was his favourite bit.

This is why it has to be Luckys Dad's rules - like it used to be.

DN said it was his favourite bit. He needs to work on his competitive spirit.