to get cross when kids arrive at birthday partys and then go round trying to "save" things to take home?

[kaphc]

Scenario: birthday party with balloons, punch balls, decorations out in the local community centre.

Enter loads of kids ready to party and their mums ready to have a headache!

Certain ones of said kids start going round picking up balloons & punchballs and giving them to their mums to "save" so that they can take them home. Mums then say OK, and put the balloons, punchballs etc. by their seats to take home. This is 15 minutes into a 2-hour party!!!

30 minutes in and the kids are then dismantling some of the hanging decorations to play games with - some of those also get brought over to be "saved".

This happened at a party I went to winds me up soooooo much! Why can't the kids just play with the stuff and leave it alone? And why don't the mums just say "no I'm not saving this, it's for everyone to play with, don't be selfish".

It's our daughters' party tomorrow and all the balloons we put up are going to be fastened to the wall so we don't have this problem!!

have never had this

never heard of this & would never allow dd to assume whe could help herself like this either

I've never come across this either.

How strange!

Must be the kids round where I live then (and I'm not saying where ... just in case!!)

i say tell the parents to leave the kids.

This isn't unheard of, as children like to take possession of pretty things that make them happy. However, the mothers shouldn't pander to it, or their little darlings will be putting things in their pockets at nursey next! Children need to understand they can't have things just because they like them.

YABU

Chill out

Life has much more shit to throw at you. This is a tickle

Thats a new one on me too. I have had children asking for a certain colour balloon but only at the end of the party when the balloons were being handed out anyway.

Just tell them they can have it AFTER the party!
You don't really want to take all the baloons home with you, do you?

How weird. You'd better nail the chairs down next time. Never heard of such a thing myself. Who knows where it will lead?

Sorry, never had this problem either. Children often take a balloon at the end but usually ask first. Never had anything else taken!

Sounds like a game one child started and now the others copy. Vess is right, just nix it early and tell them they can take souvenirs when party is over -- but that said...

Who cares if they take the balloons and some of the decorations? Or did you plan to re-use the balloons for the next party?? It's about the kids having fun, surely, not whether the room 'looks' good in the meantime, no?

I've been to many kids parties, and have never seen this ever.

Hey, I know there's loads worse in life, but if I can't rant here about the little things then where can I eh?

Anyway, for the record, I have no problem with them taking things home at the end, otherwise we'd have loads of balloons to pop. It's just when you put a load of balloons in a room for a kid to play with and then suddenly they end up under the adults chairs and no one is allowed to touch them, it's bizarre to say the least and sometimes v annnoying.

Happened today with the angel table decorations we'd made, one girl sidled up after the food to take one, and so another couple followed. Then it's all about whether they have "got something" I guess!

have never come across this but it sounds like you are using some pretty exciting decorations. I would expect that most small children would try to bag a punchballoon on spotting one.

Don;t use punch ballons as decorations! Hand them out with the party bags.

I've never had this either. I too have been to a lot of parties!

I always end up with loads of balloons that I hand out willy nilly and gratefully to any late picker-uppers and their assorted offspring.