Best time for soft play party

[YouLookLikeStevieNicks]

DD is 3 in a couple of months, she's been invited to a few birthday parties through nursery now (all 4th birthdays, she's generally been the youngest there!) and she's now absolutely insistent she wants a party at a particular soft play place and has a list of who she wants to invite.

I was really hoping we could hold off on this type of party for another year if I'm honest!

But if we have to do it, it would be on a saturday and they have 3 timeslots available - 9.30am, 12.30pm or 4pm. If you had to go to one of these parties, what would you prefer? 4pm seems to late, I think 9.30 is too early plus a lot of kids (including her) seem to have activites on Saturday mornings. 12.30 seems best but I'm conscious if it's an hour of soft play first before food, 1.30 seems late for lunch. Plus if any of these kids still nap (DD hasn't for months unfortunately) this could interfere with nap times.

Any opinions welcome!

12:30 will be best and how much is every ting going be

Definitely 12:30. We’ve done quite a few of these ourselves and they’re always between 11:30 - 3:30. I did actually throw a 9:30 soft play party but it was my only choice, 12:30 would have worked better.

12:30. My DS is a constant early riser (5/6ish) but I couldn't think of anything worse than socialising with school parents at 9:30 on a weekend, 4pm is too late.

Thanks, it's £15 per head but that includes party bags, invites etc so not too terrible. Although I do still think it's excessive for a 3 year old!

All are okay I think! 4o clock party I’d be happy I didn’t have to do dinner (presuming you’re providing food), 12.30 is most normal - most 3/4 year olds aren’t napping or are okay to miss it if they do, 9.30…. Would be early but we would be up anyway! My favourite soft play parties have actually been the 4 o clock ones as the soft play is normally quieter at this time which I prefer with this age group! Have fun!

If have preferred morning or late, but not 12:30 due to nap at that age.

@Notrainingbutpouring thanks, that's a really good point about the 4pm slot being quieter! That does make it more appealing, and yes food would be provided. But I didn't think people would like waiting around all day for a party starting that late.

how many are on the list?

i am not the only one still doing naps at 3 and planing to keep it un summer next

I only know of 1 or 2 children who were still having a daily nap at 3 or older. It seems very unusual in the UK. An 11am party is ideal so I'd be doing the same questioning as you but would probably settle on 12.30. Definitely not 4pm for 3 and 4 year olds - we knew a few children who just seemed to lose it around 4.30 or 5pm whenever we saw them, presumably from being overtired.

I think I am going against the grain but I prefer morning parties. Generally DD is not tired by then and it gets it all done and dusted by lunchtime.

It's a minimum of 10 so would probably invite 15 assuming about 10 will turn up, does that seem about right?

She's got 8 she really wants to invite but then I've got 4 friends with similar aged kids, plus a couple of them have slightly older siblings

9.30 as 12 takes up the whole day and 4pm is too late.

Surely everyone with kids is up at that time anyway

is it will be 225 not that bad tbh

We went to a 9.30 start party last year and I thought it was a great idea! It still leaves you with a decent chunk of the day to do something else, whereas the ones in the middle of the day mess up your whole day. 4pm I'd say is definitely too late for that age.

9.30 for me. 12.30 spoils the whole day for anything else and 4 is too late.

9.30, gets it over with sooner and avoids the "when is it my party?" in the hours beforehand/all day until 4pm. Then you have all afternoon for calming down the party adrenaline and present opening and a good length of time to play with new toys too.

9.30 as 4 is too late and by midday they’ll all be messed up, hungry , needing a sleep and so on!

Going a bit against the grain here, but I would definitely prefer 1600. As an attendee, I’d have the day to what I needed to do and then there is something to look forward to, they will tire themselves out, I won’t have to do dinner, and then home to bed for a hopefully early night!

Mine would absolutely still need dinner after a softplay party. Kid1 would stop looning around long enough to pause for a drink, nibble a quarter of a sandwich and eat a couple of crisps then they'd be back to it and then ravenous by the time we get home. Kid2 would exert so much energy, devour their party food portion and any leftovers, head back to the softplay and also be ravenous by the time we get home. Either way, we'd need to have dinner when we got home. Then for a 4pm-6pm ish party, they'd fall asleep in thr car on thr way home so it absolutely wouldn't be an early night by the time they'd built up enough sleep pressure again.

It would be a sh1tsh0w!

12.30, no way would we have managed 9.30 on a Saturday morning, but mine did afternoon preschool because they weren’t morning people. We still aren’t and they are grown

Mine would eat something too when back, but it wouldn’t need to be a full dinner (bit of pasta, or cheese/carrot/cucumber etc.). Maybe the difference is where we live as all soft play would be a walk or a bus, so no chance to fall asleep! I loved a late party, they would get back, have a snack and be knackered and ready for bed. My husband and I loved those parties and we’d always get in some nice food and wine as we’d be guaranteed a peaceful night!!

personally I’d prefer 1230am - a lot of kids have activities first thing Sat. If I was sending to a 1230 party I’d probably give a snack before sending if lunch isn’t until 130pm

I guess you are right 12:30 is a suitable time and you don't have to really worry about naps of the child as their excitement to attend the birthday parties never lets them sleep.