Party for twenty 2-4 year olds at home in West London - am I mad?

[Caraloony]

Hi, first off, I'm an Aussie and it seems to be different there - nearly EVERYONE does kids parties in their own home. DS and DD turn 4 and 2 respectively in July and we want to have a party at home. Will invite 4 close child friends, and DS's nursery class - so imagine there will be 15 to 20 kids. We have a decent sized backyard and a quite open plan downstairs (when I compare it to hired rooms we've been to for other kids' parties, it's pretty similar).

Was thinking maybe a small jumping castle or ball pit - anyone know of any good hire companies or am I better off biting the bullet and getting one of those ELC things? Or do you have any other suggestions? Is a paddling pool / water slide a bad idea if we made it a beach theme party?

Also wouldn't mind hiring someone to be an extra pair of adult eyes - don't really know anyone here yet who I could count on, and I want to be able to talk to parents... does anyone have any good temp contacts in the nanny/babysitter genre?

Does ANYONE in London have parties at home any more - will we be social pariahs?

Nervous but a bit stubborn on the issue...

you are either very brave or mad

actually, tbh, some of my favourites parties are at other people's houses - it's more relaxed, no faffing to get everything tidy in 5 minutes for the next party and you get to open lots of bottles of wine . We are in outer London and went to a fair few parties at other people's houses when they were that age.

The problem with having it in your house is the mess - first of all, you must gate/lock the upstairs so no children wander up there. I would ask around your children's friends - perhaps one of them has a nanny/au pair who wants to earn extra money on the weekend to help out. At that age, you'll probably still get quite a few parents staying anyway and someone is bound to help out.

You also need to think what you will do if the weather is bad (re the paddling pool idea).

I would imagine lots of parents would stay. I still stay at DS2 parties and he's 4.

Bouncy castle in the garden and lots of outdoor toys sounds great. IME children love parties at home (we don't have the space for more than about 6 kids sadly).

Yes agree need an indoor Plan B - pass the parcel and a bit of a disco?

Am just toying with same idea. We have a small/normal victorian terrace - through reception room long and narrow. Garden probably about 40 feet long. How many 5 yr olds would you squeeze into this? I can easily ask the parents not to stay. Was hoping to have about 16 or 18 - is that mad? Thinking of bouncy castle on the patio and maybe a gazebo on the grass? Was also thinking hiring an entertainer might be good idea as more structured activities might make it less chaotic. Anyone done something similar?

Snap, ITM... we're in a similar boat. I went to a party on the weekend and compared play areas and I think the sizes you're describing would be pretty equivalent to most hired halls. The secret to this particular party's success seemed to be the party entertainer, who took control of the kids and left the parents of the child to focus on things like feeding everyone and ensuring everyone's glasses were full (always the ultimate sign of a good party after all). The problem I'm having is finding a party entertainment company who is happy to host in a private home - most of the websites I've looked at say they don't like operating out of people's homes because of the likelihood of bad weather, and if you do host at home, want you to hire a marquee. BAHHH - waste of money, surely? I'd like to hear disaster stories from people who have tried to do what we want to do and have got it wrong... so I can be convinced that it's not a good idea

Yes!

Will be fine, not everyone will be able to come anyway. Invite parents and older siblings to stay (do frozen pizzas and mountains of sandwiches). Borrow/buy a gazebo and ideally have it near the back door do people can spill out comfortably. If you've got room for an actual tent too, the kids will play in there half the time.
Bubble machine and a pop mix cd will have everyone bouncing about happily.
A story at the end, with the kids on a mat, then you can send them off one at a time to get goodie bags etc while you chat to the others/sing happy birthday. At my DD's this year, I bought lots of mini cakes and decorated them (instead of a birthday cake) and the kids chose 2 to take home.