5 Yr old party

[Tiredofitallagain]

My soon to be 5 year old son is having a small party (5-6 kids) and we've opted for a Lush workshop as he adores bath bombs.
The Lush store is small so unlikely to fit in all the parents but its in a big shopping centre so they can loiter, go for coffee etc.
My DH is making the cake (he decorates big time and it's quite a thing for him, specially for my son too!)

I was thinking that after workshop I can take them to the pizza express. They have said we can then serve the cake. This is where I get unstuck. Do parents come to pizza express and so do I pay for them? DH thinks its too much of a responsibility to take care of 4 5 yr olds but I was thinking I give the parents a break for 2-3 hours and they can pick up later?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

Two parents are enough for 6 kids, if you must ask one other parent to help, but 1:3 seems very doable.
And no you don’t pay for parents to eat just give them an end time to collect.,

What @mondaytosunday said.

At 4-5 years old, in my experience, most parents wouldn't feel comfortable leaving their kids in the care of other parents they potentially have never met and especially not to attempt to eat a meal. My son is in year 2 and it's still 50/50 drop off or stay round here! He had at a party at home last year and even though I said it was drop off 2 of the parents still asked to stay as their child wouldn't feel comfortable being at the party by themselves. The Lush part is probably ok but you might struggle with pizza express.

Do you know the children invited? Some children will sit nicely when our for a meal, others will want to charge about. If your invitees are the latter, maybe consider somewhere like McDonalds?

If you do go with Pizza Express I’d ask for all menu choices in advance so the parents can help with what they will like and the restaurant can have it ready for you and avoid a long wait. I would try to rope in one other parent you know well (means if one child needs the toilet the other isn’t left with 5). If you think parents will want to stay I’d say you’ll provide a drink for the parents and if they want to eat they can order and pay on the day

I’m sorry, but unless I knew you really well I wouldn’t be massively keen on this with my just 5 yo.

It’s not the ratio, it’s the number of kids (so high potentially silliness) in a busy place with adults they don’t know well.

I wouldn’t expect you to pay for me, but I’d want to stay with my kid.

Mine went to a Lush party and they went to an ice cream shop before going to Lush, did the workshop and that was it. Another did just Lush. Pizza express might be a bit ott

Agree, we’re in the year of 5th birthday parties here (my DD not until later in the summer) and parents always stay, it’s never even been questioned/ suggested otherwise.

In theory 2 adults should absolutely be able to manage 5 to 6 children, but as has been pointed out the children don’t know you very well and depending on the child that may either mean they’re on their absolute best behaviour or they give you the absolute runaround. I’m not saying it’s not possible - but definitely speak to the parents first and make sure they’d be ok with leaving them.

If they did end up staying you wouldn’t have to feed/ pay for parents but it would be a bit awkward if you and your husband were planning to eat and none of the others were. Is there some kind of set menu option? If so you could say ‘we are inviting all the children for a meal at Pizza Express afterwards which is on us, if you’d like to join us the price per adult is X’. It might be nice to offer them a coffee/ soft drink whether of not they are eating.

Thank you so much everyone who has taken the time to reply. Really helpful!