Mini zoo petting party- eat before or after (food that is, not the pets)

[Nanodust]

So I have a dilemma. We are having a joint birthday party for our two DCs. We have booked a reliable and animal safe/treats animals humanely mini petting zoo party.

We can only book a venue between 2-4pm. I want to have the zoo first and then eat after. However my DH thinks that all the parents will not like this at all as they won't want their kids eating after petting animals. I personally wouldn't mind but wondered what the general consensus is.

Would this be a no no and should eat first?

I would eat after and make sure everyone washes their hands!

If they only had lunch at 12/1 to get to a party into for 2 they wouldn't be hungry.

So I would do the activity and then at 3.30pm maybe even just offer a drink and cake as its a bit early for teat time too. Just make sure people know that's what it will be in case they are going on elsewhere and will assume their child will have had a full tea.

Thank you, that's what I thought. However it seems my DH is not for budging and we are now looking at moving the day.....!

DD had a farm party and we ate afterwards but everyone went and washed hands in between. Really not a big deal, the farm had hand washing stations. None of the parents were remotely bothered. Good luck!

My boys were invited to a reptile party last summer, they had the animals first, then a collective hand wash session then food.

Our local petting farm does animals, handwashing, food.