Anyone not held a party for young child?

[NotmySundaybest]

My youngest went to his first birthday party this weekend for a 4 year old nursery friend, the type where all class mates are invited with bouncy castle, mascots etc.
Got me thinking gosh I'd better start planning his....
There seems to be an expectation & pressure that parties are held for primary aged kids.
We have held a couple in the past for my eldest sons.

Has anyone never held one? I'd rather take the family on a good weekend away to be honest.

I never did parties before they’d started school. But yes, spend the money on the family instead.

My son turned 4 in December and we just had his "best friend" from nursery and a boy from our old NCT group we see often around to our house for the a few hours. They went crazy with balloons, decorated biscuits, ate pizza and cake and then just played with toys while the parents took turns keeping an eye/getting involved with their games and chilling on the sofa. Ds loved it because he doesn't like crowds and stuff it saved us alot of money and stress 🤣

I did one for my eldest the first year out of lockdown as everyone was doing them and obviously lockdown had stopped 2 years of parties

I don't plan to do another one

So far we've mainly done trips away/days out which has been lovely :) don't think you need to bow to any kind of pressure. You do you! This year my son turned 5, and asked for a birthday party. We had a massive scavenger hunt in the woods followed by cake. Was great fun and cheap as chips!

From experience most parties start when they’re at school: I wondered about this for my 4 year old but have stuck with days out or small family parties

Does he want one? By 4yo he should be able to tell you if he wants a whole-class party like his friend had, or a day out with family.

Most kids in my area have parties from age 4 right the way up to around 7 when they start getting smaller but full class parties to that point.

You'd like to think so but he's non verbal

Ah sorry, I shouldn't have assumed.

If it's purely a cost thing, I think it's possible to have a large party fairly inexpensively with a bit of effort... eg a big picnic in the park with organised games (there's always one of these going on in the big park near where I live).

My dd, who usually behaves like an introvert, loves big parties and even still talks about her 2nd birthday party (not just her 3rd). But her best friend had his 3rd birthday at the zoo with family, which he loved. So I'd just go with whichever you reckon he'd prefer.

Had a birthday party for my son last year when he turned 3; due to life just being chaotic and every weekend in January and February being taken up with other birthday parties (looking at you NCT kids), we just haven't bothered. My son hasn't asked; we might do something when the weather is a bit better and/or life is just a bit less manic, and even then it will only be a couple of friends from nursery and outside. No need to make a big thing of it.

Ds will be 10 this year and hopefully having his first party.

We have waited till this year at 4 years old due to it being likely that none of her nursery class will go to school with her and she likes everyone. Most of her class started at 2 or 3 years old.

My daughters 3rd birthday fell on my day off and we usually did a group with 2 children on our day off so we had them over for cake instead of going to the group. We might do the same again this year but we won't be doing a party until she starts school

Due to when my DD is born in the year she had a birthday party at aged 4 and her next one won't be until she is 6. (Though we decided it won't be on her actual birthday.)

Her birthday party was the first one it seemed loads of her nursery class went to as they were babies/toddlers during Covid.

We didn't do anything like that pre-school, no.

We'd have family round for tea and cake and candles.

Once they started school, we had friends round to parties at home, mostly.
I've never hosed a whole class party in my life.

We’ve only held one. All the kids in his reception class had whole class parties and then from year 1 they’ve completely stopped. I’m glad DS had his party but that’s probably the only whole class party he’ll ever have.

Before he started school they didn’t really seem to exist. I’d have been really surprised if he’d been invited to one when he was at nursery!

When they're young only do parties if YOU want to. I did for my sons 1st to celebrate me to be honest, and for getting though a year as a single mum and I wanted to get MY friends and family together

We always had simple parties...3 or 4 friends round for tea.

Yes of course there will be people that never done them. I never have and have teens, never did a party we just do family days out