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.

You just need to channel a super-enthusiastic, slightly bossy, children's entertainer. "Keep passing it on! Fast as you can! Hurry, hurry!" Don't address any particular child. (The parents ignoring their kids wouldn't notice. )

😅😅 Monopoly is a dangerous game. Yes the parks! I had DN at one which had three trampolines. DN waited for ages in a queue then finally got on when a woman came over and told him to get off after about 30 seconds because ‘we’ve got to take turns’. I told her he’d just got on and she looked surprised to see me then said her DS told her he’d been waiting ages. Well, he might have been but so has DN.

Honestly I’m pleased I don’t have kids because I’d not been sleeping with the injustice of it all if it was happening regularly.

We did this to a friend on a student trip. Turns out he's very competitive when it comes to monopoly so we formed an autonomous collective and beat him. He was raging (or foaming? It was in the NE)!

Well, the organisers perhaps?

😂
You don't need kids though, my DH is a terrible loser at ALL games, we almost come to blows when we play scrabble.
I almost feel like letting him win sometimes...almost.

I had to struggle to contain my frustration when the same two children (different families) won seven times between them in the raffle at the school Christmas fete and neither parent suggested they put ticket back and draw another, which is what we used to do after the second win. I was very careful to foam/fume quietly to myself though as I was probably being unreasonable...

Raging works as well as foaming!

Were the birthday child's parents running the game? Because in their defence, the first time we had a whole class party, between the noise and the heat and the mayhem, I could barely remember my own child's name by about an hour in, never mind accurately refereeing party games.

But it does sound a bit rubbish for your nephew; hopefully he'll have enjoyed the party anyway and the parents will learn for next time.

It wasn't a birthday party

No, it was a Christmas party ran by the golf club. The woman organising it was turning her back to the children whilst stopping the music so it was ‘fair’, which I understand but it didn’t work.

The children all sound like absolute horrors. I have five DC and none of them are snotty little cheats. We were at a birthday party last month and there was a kid like that. Sly, plump little toad, swiped a prize off of a little girl years younger than him. My boys were horrified, "that boy has no honour" DS7 said loudly.
Sounds like the organisers were weak and spineless, but its really the parents responsibility. Don't foam OP, just feel glad you are not related to one of the grabby little sneaks.. imagine the shame!

Ah, sorry, I was so caught up in the fury of the unfairness that I misread!

You could have gently told the six or seven year old girl to pass the parcel on, as you were sitting right next to her.

And you don't allow the mother of the five year old to take his present/prize.

Yes, it would have been better if the organisers were more attentive but there's no harm in giving gentle guidance or whatever if you happen to be the nearest adult in this sort of situation.

😂 I feel for your poor mum.

I wasn’t sitting right next to her. She was directly opposite for the first game and there was a woman and her baby between us for the second. On the second I did keep saying to the woman ‘can you pass the parcel along?’ because she was chatting and not paying attention. My tone got increasingly frustrated but I kept trying to remember it was a kids’ party.

This sort of thing is annoying. My guess though is the people running the party were not parents (either no kids or way past kids) and had just assumed that the whole thing would run itself! It took me a couple of parties to realise that non-disabled, not particularly nasty kids, may either try and cheat, or not really understand the etiquette of such games! When we did this sort of party for our son aged 4,5,6 we'd have a "watcher" who would

• keep the parcels moving
• clock who had had a turn and indicate to the music controller, to stop the music on a child who had not. 1 layer per child, with a sweet and then finale layer with the "present" as a truely random (no watcher)!

😂😂 Gentle guidance would not have worked with that girl, I bet!

Ah I've done this dance before. Loads of stuff from up here doesn't travel well or far.

Anyways, yes OP I also get frustrated when parents let their kids cheat. It's a huge sense of pride for us to win something by merit. If I caught DS cheating in a proper proper game I'd be really cross with him.

THIS

As others have said, the adults were the problem here, not the children.
I think the organiser should have stepped in and dealt with this really.

I'd have been upset too, OP. This kind of thing is only fun if everyone including the adults focuses on keeping the rules of the game. If a couple of people are allowed to cheat there's no game and no fun.
I hope DN enjoyed the rest of the party.

Was it a golf course in Derbyshire O.P?

No, in the north east.

Maybe that was the excuse the others who "just sat and stared" used to themselves.

You did the same as them so are in no position to critise or make yourself out to be a better person.

Forming such alliances is against Monopoly rules.