If your child's birthday is in the summer holidays ....

[Countingthegreyhairs]

... do you think it's rude to always hold their party during the summer too? Or should we hold it during term time when more people are around?

The reason I ask is that dd gets invited to lots of parties during term time and we obviously want to reciprocate but quite a few of her classmates go away for full 8 wks of summer, others for either July or August (we live mainland Europe where everyone tends to goes away at same time.)

What do you think? I'd prefer her to have her party as close to her birthday as possible (more time to plan - better weather - relatives more likely to be around) but don't want to seem inhospitable either. Thanks for any thoughts ...

We had about 9 out of 18 in her class attend last year btw (+ 5 other non-school friends)

Dp isn't in the summer but is in mid september, we always hold it a week or to late to allow time for the kids to settle and invitations to go out.

She also has a friends who has a holiday birthday and her party is in term time.

My dds birthday is beginning of August she will be 6 this year and so far she has always had her party on or around her birthday and I cant see that we will change it. I normally give out invitations the last few days of term, I dont think DD would be happy to have her party 1 month later. So far I have invited the whole class, its not my problem if they are around or not.

ds1 is early august
always had his party on or around his birthday

Two out of my three are August, and tbh the easiest solution is no party

dd is late August and we've tended to hold it either w/end before term starts or first w/end of term so far, so about 10 days - 2 weeks after. She shares her b'day with one other and some of her class friends turn a year older early September though so we have to try to avoid clashes. Groups become more selective as they get older so hopefully it will get easier.

oh don't tempt me UnknownRB!!

Thanks for responses so far.

Consensus seems to be in favour of parties in hols being OK (I guess you can't help when dc are born after all!) but still fairly new to all this so grateful for opinions ....

ds's b'day is always in Easter holidays
dd's is always in October half-term

For dd's last birthday (7th), we didn't do a birthday party but instead towards the end of term had a crowd of little girls home for mass Christmas-decoration-making.

We haven't done anything for ds's (just turned 9) either - instead, as this term will be the last before he moves school, we will do a great big farewell party (he says "swimming & science") around June.

(A side benefit of this is avoiding the issue of birthday presents.)

Thanks for that LIZs.. I probably SHOULD follow your example and try to be a bit more accommodating I know.

.. it's the clashes you mention that make it more complicated here too...

.. I guess I could move it to late rather than early August when families are more likely to be returning home ....

bugger!

good to know it does get easier though ...

DS's is in the week the school goes back. I was going to send out the invites before summer break. Hopefully people will remember when the school goes back.

Bink - that's a very good idea about hosting get togethers at alternative times ... and I'm quite keen on the crafts idea .... I'm not sure I'd be organised enough to do it in the run up to Christmas though!!

thanks ... you've got me thinking ...

I know of a boy whose birthday is Christmas Day, and he always has a party on or around 25th June.

At the end of the day, you do what works for you.

IME, you have to get organised early if you're going to have a party during the holidays, and expect some to be on holiday, and someone to forget.

One year I procrastinated too long over DS1's birthday, so took a few lads to the cinema once they were back at school in the September.

mmm - feeling a bit guilty after hearing about these other good mothers who are going out of their way to make alternate arrangements ... especially as I only have one dd ... still... it's quite a nice "problem" to have really..so shouldn't complain!!!

Agree about being organised Unknown - trying to sort out dates now as I tend to dither about these things (as is probably evident !!!) and times seems to be flying along ...

Might just quell my Catholic guilt by holding the party in the holidays and then having a separate, small craft-type gathering for those unable to make it later on....