Baby's first birthday.

[Writerwannabe83]

In a few months it will be DS's first birthday and I'm wondering if it's a bit precious and unnecessary to have a party???

I know friends have had parties for their child's 1st birthday in the past but in reality it is just an excuse for the adults to get together and have a few drinks which is not what I want.

A good friend of mine hired out a hall and booked a company to provide ball pools and soft toys etc but some people thought it was OTT for a 1st birthday party that means nothing to the child.

How did you celebrate your child's 1st? If at all

All the birthday parties for 1 year old I've been to have been tea parties with family and friends who have babies invited, which I think is what we'll do. Quite fancy the sound of one of these OTT ones though (to be invited to, not to host!).

For ds we weren't planning much but my mum announced she'd booked plane tickets especially so we had to do something. I organised a hungry caterpillar party and we had family and friends over and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Ds didn't really know what was going on, and didn't eat the amazing cake we'd slaved over, but it was nice to celebrate getting through a not too easy first year of parenting with those close to us. I love event planning too

Dd will turn one in April but I suspect her party will be more about her brother's ffriends running riot as we all had girls second! It might have to be in a hall or something as our house isn't big enough for a bunch of pre schoolers and babies!

My current thinking is that I want to do something big I know a lot of people with babies/toddlers who I would like to come (maybe about 10 women) and I also have many friends with children aged between 3-7. I would like to do something fun for the youngsters, toddlers and children primarily and then make the adult guests happiness my second priority, lol. I have a big family and people would come but on my DH's side there is only his dad. DH has other family members (aunts, uncles and cousins) but they aren't close, in fact only one other member of his family has met DS.

we had buffet lunch and a few of her friends from baby group over, ate food, played pass the parcel she loved having everyone fussing over her. was at home so quite casual

I must be a meanie because we didn't do anything! She wouldn't have remembered it so we put the cash we would've spent into her bank account and took her to feed the ducks and play on the park which was her favourite thing to do at the time.

I do think they're more for the adults than the kids but if you want a party then have a party and don't worry what other people think, just don't build up too many expectations for how your son will react, we've been to a few and the birthday kids don't realise it's anything special and a couple have had major meltdowns with all the attention on them.

Dd will be 2 in a couple of months and we're not having a party this time either because again she's still unaware of things like that, it'd just be like another playgroup to her which costs a couple of quid and not a couple of hundred quid. We'll buy her a couple of presents, put cash in her bank and take her to the park to play football which is her latest favourite thing to do.

had lots of my own friends over and loads of booze. possibly inappropriate but we really enjoyed it!defnitely wouldn't bother doing anything like hire soft play etc - but personally I think the year mark is important for parents and a lovely thing to mark...

Hi Writer, we had our lo's around the same time I believe so birthdays will be around the same time roughly, I remember you from the sleep thread!
I will happily admit that I have always thought it a bit precious to throw a part for a one year old who wouldn't rermenebr, however, now I'm a mum I can see that there won't be another 1st birthday and as a pp said it's about celebrating the first year as a parent so I am converted lol!
I have seen some nice ideas on hear like aquarium and farm, so will probably do something like that ??