Leaving children at parties.

[twoforthepriceofone22]

Hi! Just wondered if anybody can tell me at what age they would or have left their child alone at a birthday party.
My 4.5 ds is insistent that this is the done thing for his age, but I'm a bit as he seems a bit young and I was looking forward to having birthday cake and a natter.
What do you think?

DD is 4 ( in reception). Drop off is fine but not universal. I play it by ear.

It also depends where the party is. In public places parents tend to stay well beyond that.

Where I live a 4.5 would beat school and definitely be left. Anything from about 4 up the kids are left. But there's likely to be a wide vairiance in this because I've seen here on MN that some parents seem to stay until their kids are considerably older.

Y1 parent here and the majority of parents still stay.

From age 3 for me, but DD's quite independent and confident.

My DS is 5, I've been expected to stay with him at all his parties this year. When I had his bday party a few months ago, I had one mum ask if she could leave her dc and go. I said no, simply as there were 30kids in a public hall (along with over 30 parents) and no way of locking them in. I was worried I wouldn't notice if one decided to leave!

Year 1 parent, all parties here still have a parent with each child. Only exception is when another parent takes responsibility for someone elses child, however that is nothing to do with the host.

If I had a reception party I would be shocked if someone left their child without proper prior arrangement.

In our area the stand is drop off from Primary one (so four or five).

Standard to drop off here from about Christmas of reception, unless specifically put on the invite (i.e. Ice skating party)

Thanks for the replies, quite a difference in opinions. I have asked party mum what she wants and she said I'm fine to go..... Think I'll see how I feel on Saturday

Usually y1 up here - and in y1 only if you know the birthday child's parents a bit /they know your child a bit. Y2 you can hear a car door open outside then the screech of tires as the parent escapes makes the most of two hours of freedom

Dds are y2 and it's still a mix. We stayed at a swimming party which made sense due to changing. I drop at parties in people's houses and 50/50 if they are church hall type parties. I am slack though, lots of others still stay to everything.

Reception here - parents who knew me and dd left their kids, ones who had never met me to speak to all stayed. In Y1 had about 3 parents stay, one as child got clingy, other two as their kids got shy and forgot English. Ds first got dropped off age 3.5 but host was a primary teacher. Now we need a parent to attend in case he has a meltdown (though he hasn't been invited to big parties since one in Y2, partly as small groups are now the done thing)