Child Invited To Birthday Party Parents Expected To Pay

[Warrior96]

Hi so I know a child who has been invited to a birthday party, the child is 5. All the kids invited to the birthday party are 5-6 years old so parents will be expected to stay. The invitation asks the parents to pay for themselves. Am I being unreasonable to think this is a bit cheeky?

I was talking about the ppl that expect parents to pay!! They are entitled- sorry, I quoted the wrong post

Don't worry about it!

Is he lacking in confidence, doesn’t like parties, not into having friends yet?

A birthday party with friends is still not the same as abandoning a child in a shopping centre alone

Mine have lived through each and every one

Parents drop and go .. strange they need to pay...never had that yet. Yanbu

There’s nothing worse than being invited to a party and being expected to pay to attend. My friend does this every year, wants to throw her son a party (normally soft play) but doesn’t actually book the party room, so it’s basically just a play date that she wants everyone to pay to attend it. Still expects presents as well. Needless to say he didn’t have many people at his “party” this year.

I personally wouldn’t have booked this particular place if it charges parents to attend and I wasn’t willing to cover the cost. If you want to bring two parents along and the place only covers the cost of one, then having to pay for the second parent is fair enough, but to charge every parent to attend to ensure their children are safe isn’t acceptable in my opinion. I would have found another venue that wasn’t such a rip off.

Thanks for the invite, but we’re washing our hair that weekend 🤭

Venue's pricing model is the CF here really.
What is the adult price? I would hope it's a token few pounds? In which case I would probably suck it up and assume that the party parents have figured they could afford to invite an extra couple of kids if they don't have to pay for the parent entrance fees.
No I wouldn't be over the moon about spending weekend afternoon in a soft play and having to pay for the privilege but if my kid would enjoy the party then I would do it.

I wouldn't leave a 5 year old in a soft play party that was open to the public unless it was a family I knew very well who I knew would supervise properly. I have nervous children anyway so have tended to stay, the party hosts usually sit and chat and are not watching the kids at all. One trampoline party we went to the mum left for about 40 minutes and didn't tell anyone and left no one in charge.

No one at my kids school would drop and go at that age.They are 5! The drop off parties don’t tend to start until they turn 8 or so here!

Depends how much it is.

So the soft play near us charges £1 per adult I'd be ok with that. There's also an outdoor climbing park that's £12pp regardless of whether you watch or join in, I'd be less keen to attend that.

Wait. So, people who drop and run, is the expectation then that the birthday child's parents will single-handedly supervise 20 6 year olds? My DC aren't yet at the drop and run stage, but if that's how it works, this year will be DS's last birthday party! I'm not a primary school teacher; like fuck do I know how to manage more than a couple of feral kids 😂 (But I would pay for parents to stay at a party, if only to avoid that scenario happening!)

Also, do parents even know who their kids' friends are at that age? My DS gives me a list of children's names to invite, but I wouldn't be able to pick their faces out of a line-up, and I'm confident the same is true of other parents in his class. So, if I just dumped him in the soft play with the rest of his classmates, there is absolutely no way that the party child's parents would know who he is, or that they needed to intervene if he's being beaten up / has an asthma attack / leaves with some other family!

I have three children born in mid nineties early 2000 . It was unheard of staying at a children’s party. Drop off and run was the normal thing.
I can only remember 1 child having her Mother staying.
It really was unusual hence the reason I can remember!!
So I personally think it is very strange ,staying,when your child goes to school .
Children need to learn to trust other adults and it’s up to the parents to instill that other adults are responsible and caring.
I never considered parents as a concern and can honestly say there was never an incident that questioned my judgment .
My children are all fully functioning successful adults 🤷‍♀️
edited We always had friends,grandparents etc as helpers and in my experience children were always better behaved/ relaxed without parents there .

I never had to pay for soft play as an adult when I stayed when my kids are invited to a birthday party at one of these establishment. I will buy my own drink as I don't expect the parents to pay for it. I never heard of a soft play asking adult to pay, only the children got charged.

Good for them 👏

Are you just lacking?

You don't recognise the kids he goes to school with everything single day?

That's weird.

I’m certainly lacking your penchant for hysteria and hyperbole.

From age 5 where I live everyone drops and goes. Totally normal.

@crosskeysgreen some children go breakfast and after school clubs. There are some children in my year 3's class who I barely know. Might have seen them at sports day etc but never at drop off and pick up as they're not there at the same time.

I'm the parent dropping off my kid with a cheery "see you later" 😂. Mine would have been mortified if I'd stayed, even at five or six. I think asking people to pay for supervising adults at soft play is appalling anyway.

What's wrong with you??! Wanting to stay for your 5 year old child does not make you a helicopter parent! I would be happy to pay for myself.

Pay to just sit there? Don't think so.
Why do parents have to stay anyway? Parents don't stay all day at school with 4, 5, 6year olds do they?

Isn’t it a few quid? Presuming all the kids can’t be supervised so need more adults and I’d want to stay with a 5 year old anyway it’s not exactly much in my opinion