To think this is actually reasonable value for a child’s party?

[neverplaywithasmoo]

I am paying £750 to exclusively hire a soft play for two and a half hours.

Included in that is obviously use of the facilities for an hour and a half then an hour with all food and drink (including the cake) napkins balloons etc with a theme we want. (DD wants princesses of course but there are others available.)

All guests also get a free return visit to the soft play and party bags are included too.

I can’t see how we’d do it much cheaper really.

Mental.

Well you don’t hire exclusively and share it with the riff raff aka public 😂 and pay per child which is usually £15/20 depending on food and party bags (which are usually tat when made by soft play)

so if have 10 /20kids it would be 300-400

no need for a return visit

It is obscene, really. Even where we used to live in Switzerland, kids parties were 150 chf all in.

Fuck me,my wedding cost 1500£.

You are definitely living in a different version of reality from many of us...
Your kids won't even remember it.

@Grindfall as politely as possible, I don’t want to have a party in a park at all and if I did, I absolutely would not under any circumstances whatsoever think celebrating my eldest birthday in a park in mid December would be a good thing to do - sorry. Even the people I know who have done park parties have been those with May or June birthdays.

As for If I had £750 to spare I can think of a hundred things I'd do with it before I spent it on a soft play party totally and that’s fine, but the point is, we’re doing a soft play party. I mean, I wouldn’t spend £750 on designer clothes or on luxury skincare or on animals (I adopt moggies but I know people who have pedigree cats and adore them 🤷‍♀️) and those things aren’t wrong. If you don’t want a party at all that’s different; if you want a particular type of party then gauging the price is interesting. It’s definitely been an interesting read as while there’s a lot of knee jerk responses there are also a lot of more thoughtful ones.

’you don’t’ pardon?

You asked how you could do it cheaper

one doesn’t hire the whole place

is that better 😀

OP, the most popular entertainer when my children were small was £500 a go and you had to pay for everything else on top of that- this was 15 years ago. Mind you, he did drive round in a massive black Range Rover with personalised plates 😂

I don’t think I did, actually.

Blimey - hope he was good for that price!

This thread is starting to confuse me.
I think people thought you might want recommendations for.cheaper alternatives (hence the park parties, home, village hall, less guests type suggestions).

But clearly you just want somewhere to to tell everyone that this is the party you are choosing and this is the cost and have a remark for anyone's suggestions.

If you don't want to change any aspect, and are happy to spend that much tk get what you want, then yes it is good value to you.

@BudgetBuster i was interested, that’s all. I still am. I have actually found it a really insightful and enjoyable thread - it’s akin to having a chat, hearing about different parties, different prices, what’s gone well, what hasn’t.

I mean yes, I am going ahead with this party; I’ve paid the deposit and booked it. It isn’t an advice thread but that doesn’t mean it is not informative. I honestly don’t mean this snippily but none of that is or should be confusing.

It just seems so much money to hand over for some little kids to run around, eat some sandwiches and crisps and go home. Soft play is not a novelty any more, and yeah kids like it, but £700?! Kids don’t care about exclusive hire! I did a soft play party once for one of my three, a joint one- it was just under £400 total so half that each- that seemed fair enough (I wouldn’t have paid in full on my own). If you’re happy to pay it then obviously that’s no one else’s business, but yeah that sounds eye wateringly expensive to me!

I think it's confusing because it was posted on the AIBU forum hence why we were all offering suggestions. It wasn't clear until halfway through the thread that you were just being conversational.

I didn't find you snippy... I guess it just wasn't apparent to me what you wanted 😂

I can’t see how we’d do it much cheaper really.

this is what you said.

hence my reply - So by not hiring out exclusively it would be cheaper

Well, it is, I’m not denying that at all.

But the options seem to be

1. not have a party - totally reasonable option
2. have a party but lower key, reduce the number of guests mainly. I get that’s a possibility but the problem is deciding which children to ‘exclude’ sits uncomfortably with me. Plus a handful of friends not from school. It might be a bit cheaper if I paid per head but I did this recently for ds and there wasn’t a massive discernible difference unless you really cull the numbers which as I’ve said I feel uncomfortable with.
3. not pay someone else and do it yourself - as others have noted the difference doesn’t seem to be all that great and you also end up with a LOT of work!

@Blondeshavemorefun i am aware thanks.

I think I was interested as I had lunch with friends last week and I mentioned my plans for DDs birthday. I worked with them both many years ago but they are a fair bit older than me and so their children are adults now. They were very ‘how much!?’ about it and I was interested as anything between £600-£800 is kind of what I’d expect for a whole class party budget wise. So I asked here I can see the responses are variable; some along the lines of ‘oh dear god HOW much’ to ‘yep, sounds about right!’

I’m sure as a business offering it is costed appropriately, and I’m sure the party will be wonderful for the children and zero effort for you. I would die before I paid that much for a child’s birthday party but if that’s your budget then great. I’m sure for the majority that would be too much so not sure what you hope to get from posting here.

My teenager went bowling and had dominoes with 5 friends. Total £60.

My 8yo is turning 9 soon. Karaoke booth for an hours and McDonald’s for 10 of them will cost £90.

In the last few years we have had a whole class party at a soft play with food included for £100.

Laser tag for 10 of them, with food, cost £120 last year.

So yes, £750 is ridiculous!

I have kids from toddlers to teens. It's good value for what you are getting. But the vast majority of people couldn't afford it and I think that's where the "SORRY WHAT... HOW MUCH" responses come from.

All of that seems really, really cheap - I mean, it cost me £18 just to get two children into soft play for a regular session yesterday, so £100 for a whole class party seems crazily cheap (I’m not doubting your word, just pointing out the difference in prices.)

I pay months in advance, fortunately I have two children born at completely different times of the year so as soon as one party is done and dusted I put a deposit on the next 😂

It was a special offer after school in the week. The other parties were special offers on certain days, except the upcoming karaoke one on a Saturday. I always shop around for the best deal as the children have fun no matter how much you spend, so it really isn’t worth spending more than necessary.

If you can afford it why not. I would always go for exclusive use if I could, I have seen too many parties at soft play ruined by badly behaved kids who weren’t part of the party.

It isn’t, but you do also have to take practicalities into consideration such as distance travelled and age of the children attending. It sounds like you got some bargains though