Toddler party - does everyone actually turn up?

[nonamemummy]

My son is going to be having a soft play party this year. I’ve never organised a party before. I’m just wondering if most kids invited actually turn up?
What’s everyone experiences?

In my experience you’ll get a half who reply saying they will be there, maybe even on the day itself,and then another quarter who turn up without an rsvp.

Atleast they turned up. I’m just abit scared that he’d invite all these children and none turn up!

Okay that’s quite good. There can be 30 kids at the soft play so out of 30 theres got to be quite a few turn up then hopefully

My toddler had his last birthday party at a soft play everyone turned up. I did only invite kids whose parents I knew well and whose kids were friends of my toddler. If you are invite a full nursery of kids whose parents you barely know I would expect no more than 50 percent max RSVP plus a couple of kids whose parents didn’t RSVP. I hand heard in some cases no more than 6 out of 20 kids showing up. If you know the parents they generally let you know.

Sometimes people turn up with extra kids too. ‘Oh you don’t mind I bought my others along too’ .
I did mind and it cost me another £25!
Learn from my mistakes and be firm

@Fundays12 I don’t know any of the parents. I only really know who about 3 of the kids are. The nursery said they would just give me a list of names to write an invitation to

How do you deal with them bringing siblings? The soft play has a max amount of kids allowed. What if they exceed that?

You may not get as many as you would like unfortunately or no shows on the day that you have too pay for. If you know the parents they don’t do it. I personally wouldn’t do a pay per head party for nursery kids unless you know them well.

I would give the list of attendees to the soft play in a written email to prove you sent it with a statement that also says if a parent brings a sibling you will not be paying for that child. You will only pay for the kids who are on the list. I would also hand this to the person doing entrance on the day with a clear reminder that if a parent chooses to bring a sibling it’s there choice but you will absolutely not be paying for the sibling so if they admit them they charge the parent or they don’t get paid for them.

It’s just £100 for 1 hour and a half for up to 30 children. If I invite 30 and only half turn up I suppose I wouldn’t mind