To not want to have to spend vast amounts of time organising a birthday party for a 2-year-old when I know she'd be perfectly happy at soft play?

[TheBossofMe]

DD will be 2 at the end of Feb. She'll be having a small family party (just cake, balloons etc at home with close family), but also will have a birthady party shared with 4 other kids (kids from my antenatal group). All of them love soft play (I know, shudder!), local centre does kids parties with cake, party bags etc, but one of the Mums and all of our DHs think we should do something more special (which I roughly translate as less tacky!).

Which roughly translates as hire a room at a venue of some sort, decorate it ourselves, hire in a load of equipment, get a kids entertainer, organise games, sort food...the list goes on. All of which I would be perfectly happy to do if I thought that the kids would like it more, but I think that games, entertainer etc is a bit much for the average just-gone-two-year-old, and that what they really want is to throw themselves madly around some padded rooms, ie soft play!

So, AIBU, or even AIB just plain lazy?

Soft play soft play soft play!!!!

Take ballons and make it look lovely, best part of it is you don't have to tidy up afterwards

With my party entertainer hat on (I have run hundreds of children's parties), please don't do a big party for a 2 year old.

They are hell on earth - most party entertainers e.g. magicians, clowns are either too old for the tinies or terrify the life out of them. You might be able to find a music party entertainer, along the lines of someone who runs pre-school music classes, but you'll find that some children will find it uninspiring and want to charge about.

Children under 3 have no concept of party games, and the noise and general mayhem can be upsetting for quieter children. Frequently the birthday child gets over excited and cries, or overwhelmed and cries, or just refuses to join in with anything and cries.

Have a tea-party with a few toys, go to a soft-play centre, do anything except hire a hall, spend a fortune on entertaining, food and party bags. It's not worth it.

You really don't need an entertainer for a 2 year old. You could hire a hall and take some toys and food and music and beer and have a lovely couple of hours without too much bother though.

Our local children's centre hires out their soft play room for weekend parties and you take your own food. Its great as the children love it, it doesn't smell and isn't boiling hot and noisy like the 'proper' soft play centres are.

I have to say though I wouldn't ever take too much notice of what DH thinks 'we' should do for DC's parties, I'm always the one who does the work (in fact he left DDs 30 mins early and possibly won't make DSs at all this year) so I choose.

Keep things very simple. At two, this is what the children will enjoy. If people don't like your perfectly sensible proposed ideas then, with respect, they could always fuck off.

YANBU - except that with teenies I find I'm always terrified that one might drown in the dreaded 'ball bath' at those soft play centres. When mine were two and three I invited a few friends to the house and got an entertainer and simple food (I'm too hopeless to do the games myself - every second is like an eternity - but having it at home minimised the other costs).

Lets face it. At 2 the party is for you and not them. my son was 2 over Christmas and i couldn't face him not having a party. So the week before i went to my local sports centre who gave us a room and a bouncy castle for £47. I made marshmallow cakes, my mum did pizza finger and mother inlaw did cheese sandwiches. I did small party bags and after the birthday cake called out to the room is anyone wanted to play pass the parcel. To my utter amasement 10 toddlers ran off the bouncy castle and sat in a circle ready to play!

My boy love'd it and talked about his party for a day or so. He would have loved an hour in softplay just as much!

Soft play.

But if not, look into local authority halls - my sister had a party in one for dniece when she was 3 - bouncy castle, big soft balls, hoops etc for los to play with, and they did their own food.

It was cheap and easy to organise. You are right, the main thing at that age is the running about and getting cake to eat

NO to party games

NO to entertainer

Or, in fact, exactly what MummySprog has just posted

Thanks ladies for all the tips - am looking at local leisure centre soft play rooms now as the alternative to the huge soft play thing I originally had in mind, cheaper, less noisy/smelly, and we can take our own food. So hopefully will keep everyone happy-ish!

It´s for your child-do what you think she will like!

I am having a party for my DS who will be 2 at the end of Jan, after swearing I would never have parties for young children. But my friend had one for her twins and it was the hall, hired with a bouncy castle and soft play section (at the time you were allowed to bring your own ball pool but they have stopped that now), for an hour, then the room upstairs for an hour where you could do food and cake etc. We had a game of pass the parcel and that was it. It was brilliant and it was under £60. My friend had 32 toddlers and the price doesn't change with the amount of children that you have.

I wouldn't bother with the whole entertainer thing, there was one at an xmas party I went to and some of the children were terrified and the others were just running around. Its bad enough trying to get my DS to sit still for pass the parcel, so I think soft play is a good idea.

YANBU. We have just had a party for my 3 year old, its the first party he has had as I just didnt see the point before. We did have simple games (stuff like Hokey cokey, Farmers in Den, musical bumps etc) but they were all non competitive (eg in musical bumps they all just sat down when the music stopped and nobody was ever out iyswim) but also watched "the Snowman" on a big screen to help pace things. I noticed that the youngest boy who was only 2 and a half didnt really join in the games at all, just too young I think.

soft play however they can all enjoy whatever the age and stage of the child.

I had a party for DD at home for about 10 children when she was 2. We did pretty similar stuff when she was 3 - so he's my take....

Cake - I made a really fancy Princess Castle Cake when she was 2.. I chose it and made it, she enjoyed eating it - we had good fun taking picture cutting it etc... After her b'day she told lots of people about her cake, and was clearly very proud about it (that hadn't been that apparent on the day!).

When she was 3, she understood her b'day was ccoming and was very keen to take part in choosing a (hideously complex) dinosaur cake..

Decoration - we had balloons and banners... at 2 she had a ball playing with the balloons... At 3 she helped put the decorations and was more involved - she clearly remembered decorating the year before... balloons are great value and easy to put up.

Party food - both years we had simple party food, - sandwiches, sausages, dips etc for parents and childen..

Games - some of the kids were older than 2, so that helped... we played simple games like pass the parcel, musical bumps and musical chairs... It was a bit chaotic (think school nativity play), but all very good natured. The kids enjoyed winning prizes -we made sure everyone had a prize. We did the same the following year... but teh 3 year olds did understand the games better...

Other than the b'day cakes - which seem to require lots of specialist equipment! - none of it was very expensive. I tend to buy prizes in sales and ASDA is also good for cheap prizes.

I think entertainers are very dear - and not worth it at this age. It is not hard to organise a few party games, and the audience is not a critical one!

good luck.

theboss, it has been said before, but an entertainer is wasted on 2 year olds. My ds was 2 when I hired an entertainer/hall for dd 5's birthday party.

The entertainer, who was very experienced with big groups of children, said the 2 year olds will probably not join in. And they did not. Just wandered around or sat to one side.

Ds was in fact in tears at the noise and people for most of the time. He wanted to leave the room. And he is used to hustle and bustle from ft nursery.

Soft play is best. Or a house party with no entertainer.

most 2yrs wont appreicate/sit still for an entertainer

soft play is much better,not tacky, and you dont have to tidy up afterwards

gets my vote everyt time for 2/3yrs