Siblings and parties, what's the norm?

[hormonalmum]

My ds is having a party soon for his 4th birthday.
It's at a soft play centre.

He is my second child and many of his friends have siblings in my older childs class.

What is the etiquette about paying for siblings?

We have three children. Our rule was that the. 2 children whose party it wasn't could invite one close friend to attend. Don't get dragged into inviting the older children. It is your younger son's day. If parents of the other children want to come along and bring their other children they should pay for them and not expect you (I certainly would not have!)

We have paid for siblings some times, when DD was younger she was at school with boy-girl twins. We used to pay for them both to come when they were small but once they got to about 7-8 and she was only friends with the girl we stopped inviting the boy. Their Mum was OK with that. I wouldn't have done the same if they hadn't been twins.

all the parties I have been to to the expectation is that its only the child invited that is paid for - so if silblings come along their parents pay- I would imagine older children - wouldn't really want to come along to a 4 yos party anyway - a friend for your older child might be nice

Your child invites his chosen guests. No need to invite siblings unless they are also on his chosen guest list.

As for your older child, up to you - but you want to want to say that he can invite one guest to the party of his choice, so he has a friend his age to play with.

if they want to bring older kids then they pay for them
I've offered a couple of times if I've been pretty friendly with the parents but other than that they pay for their own

I let my other child invite 1 friend that I pay for so they have someone to play with and there are less arguments