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.

😂 I suspect they all already knew that.

Of course they didn't. The OP is a stickler for The Rules and wouldn't be so hypocritical!

I once (at 9 months pregnant) almost had a fistfight with two women at a ball pool.

Their two boys ganged up on my dc (witnessed by another parent with no skin in the game) and have him a bloody nose. As I was sorting him out and getting him to explain what happened one of the (think Vicky pollard) mums stormed over followed by the other screeching “eh, your kids just pushed me son over!!!” But I (flowing with about to give birth protective hormones) and having heard from the other parent what actually happened was in no mood and leapt up (my dm later said I reared up like a Valkyrie and practically levitated) ready to do battle and shouted “HAVE YOU SEEN WHAT YOUR TWO HAVE DONE TO MY KID??!!!” I was honestly ready for a fistfight (most unlike me usually). And they muttered something like “well, it’s not on” and scurried away.

So yeah, don’t ever have kids if you’re not prepared to do battle at the ballpit - it’s like mad max’s thunderdome in those places.

To their credit the mums later came and apologised and we left as friends!

What a joke the organisers should have told that cheating girl to pass the parcel! Just don’t go to a kids party with the same organisers because they clearly don’t care about fairness just paid to do a job.

I had never used or heard foaming in Scotland until I met my now DH who is from NE but surely it's just coming sense? I'm sure the people bringing up the word know exactly what you meant are just being pedantic.

Also, I'd have been the same at the party. I could never have kids because they'd have to go to things like this and I couldn't deal with other kids being like this 😂

It was the child who stared. Read things properly.

I did say I could see her point in hindsight!

You're just moaning @O6bftdff you did nothing.

If you don't take action, you don't get the right to moan...

“It takes a village”… it’s perfectly fine for adults paying attention to take charge and tell the cheating girl to pass the parcel on. You don’t get far in this life if you silently watch and secretly get annoyed.

What!? You need to read properly. OP said she gets her mother’s reaction now,

😂 According to who? Course I can moan, don’t be daft.

Yeah, surely the rule with pass the parcel is everyone wins once.

That would wind me up too.

The OP is correct to be frustrated here. There were many examples of poor parenting where kids were being kids but parents need to teach them what is right.

I still remember being only kid in circle to get nothing when i was 10.lol honestly i remember it hurting so much. When my kids play kids games i always remind them it sometimes itsnt fair. Cheating kids get my goat. Often their parents are prroud they won even if they cheated

It's just a game 🤷

But even if they're watching the game what do you want them to do?

It should’ve been the girl’s. She was ignoring DN. They should’ve been paying attention before the music stopped. Irritating as anything.

A game with rules. If they don’t want to concentrate and play by the rules they shouldn’t be in the pass the parcel circle. Getting riled up again 😅

Make sure they don’t switch the music off on the same cheating child five times.

I have helped run kid's Christmas parties. An organiser always assisted pass-the-parcel to make sure it was done properly with no cheating.

All the adults organising and the parents, possibly including yourself OP, have done badly here. I would email the organisers and ask if next year, they can supervise the games as it sends a bad message to kid's if cheating is rewarded.

I’m never going to tell six year olds who aren’t mine to stop cheating. Im taking my nephew to a party and paying for it. I don’t see why I should have to risk the wrath of the cheaters’ parents.

Also, the boy was laughing and blatantly winding the other kids up by holding onto the present at the end. But the girl who kept winning was getting given the parcel and just holding it, staring straight ahead, until someone finally took it from her hands. No smirking or teasing like the boy, just staring ahead. So I don’t know if it was an act and she was pretending she didn’t know to pass, or maybe she had learning difficulties or something. Which brings me back to blaming the parents who should’ve been either telling her to stop cheating and get on with it or helping her. But I’m not going to discipline her in front of a circle of actual parents who are much more experienced at kids’ parties who acted like nothing was wrong.

I have 3 older dc and these sorts of situations still make me foam at the mouth so I get where you are coming from op. I stopped attending these sorts of 'organised fun' events for similar reasons, there are always certain kids that get away with murder, usually it turns out that they are somehow connected to the organiser of the party, hence why they are allowed to get away with murder.

What is it with people, foaming and fuming and shaking with rage. I must live in a parallel universe.

😂 They’re just turns of phrase. Not a literal representation of how someone’s feeling. Well, unless they are. You can usually use context to work it out.

Just like when someone says ‘it’s not ideal’ when they’ve lost their job, been made homeless and their leg’s hanging off but ‘there’s nothing worse’ when their teabag splits. I understand the confusion (assuming English isn’t your first language).

But you did nothing ie you ondpned the behaviour. If you reaming do something otherwise you're just injuring yourself. It's utter madness.