Advice please - son with mild SELD trying to set up small children's party business

[Oldmotherhen2025]

Good morning everyone, I would be really grateful for your advice. My son is a recent graduate (computer games tech, with a love of LEGO - really enjoys gaming but not really of a level to make a career from it). He had an EHCP at school - he is a bit quiet, but with a lovely sense of humour. He has mild dyspraxia, and has some mild communication difficulties. He has been thinking about primary school teaching as a career as he can get on well with children, but because he only has some volunteer experience, is quiet and we live in a very nice area, he can't get a job as a TA - he got the level 3 qualification, but he doesn't interview great (though he is getting better :-)). His confidence is in his boots and we have thought about setting up a small children's games business offering either collaborative retrogaming (PS2-4) where the children can play on games together in groups of up to 4, and/ or LEGO parties, which are essentially free build sessions with some games offered as well. We have piloted the idea with a few friends, and the feedback has been that the children had a great time, but he needs to be slicker (fair) - but now we are starting to advertise it is really difficult to get any bookings. My question is - is this the sort of thing that you think kids aged 6-12 might go for? Is there anything else he needs to offer? Where would you look for ideas of parties - or is it word of mouth? He says he can cater for parties of 4-20 kids, he is enhanced DBS checked etc, the pricing is £75-175, and he has build a fab website but doesn't get many site visits. Really just wondering if I should manage his expectations or if anyone thinks this might work. Thank you so much!!

Bless him, this must be really hard for him and you.

Sadly, it doesn't sound very promising as a business idea. Bluntly, many parents will be wary of a young man wanting to work with children, because so many men in positions of trust have abused that trust. And a solo business with no supervision and no accountability is the most risky situation of all. So he will get far less bookings than a young woman would in that situation.

It also sounds like it might be going against his natural personality. For that money, you'd expect a children's party host to be very upbeat and extrovert and create a wow factor that adds something you can't put together as a parent. Coping with 20 primary kids at a party requires real strength of personality and group management skills which wouldn't come naturally to him.

You could manage his expectations by pointing out that even well established party planners are struggling to get bookings in the current economic climate so perhaps it's not the right time to try something new but huge well done to him for trying.

He might be better finding a voluntary role - scouts or volunteering in a school - to build up some experience and confidence?

I disagree with the male party host thing as some of the most popular entertainers where I live are male and never struggle for bookings - but there is a lot of word of mouth recommendations I feel. Parents don’t want to risk booking someone who won’t be any good and if feedback is lukewarm then other parents aren’t going to recommend him. It’s a tough market to make a living 🙁

In the nicest possible way, this is a disaster. How would he cope with shitty demanding parents?

If he’s looking to build experience as a TA, has he tried working at after school clubs or holiday provision? Round our way they are crying out for staff - school TA roles are generally taken by mums who don’t want to work after school hours.

Your son sounds fab!

A more chilled party idea sounds great - not all kids love screeching and running by around.

But I agree with PPs that this would be really hard to start with no experience. Both because of bookings (personally I wouldn’t book someone without a track record); but also for him - does he know how to handle a room of sugared up kids if things get rowdy? What would he do if a parent complained?

There are tonnes of childcare jobs going near me - things like afterschool care which are hard for parents who have their own kids. I’d start with something like that then work up.

Good luck to him!

What on earth is SELD?

If he’s just doing free Lego building he needs to be at the cheaper end.
I’ve don’t parties for my own children which have been play and craft parties.
He probably needs to add some different play options and a couple of craft activities.

He could approach local libraries to run odd days as drop in summer holiday activities.
He could advertise as someone to keep children entertained at weddings.
He could run some stay and plays in school holidays in village/church halls for children upto 10

Video gaming parties are a thing, the ones near me turn up with a converted van/mini bus with the whole tech set up ready to go. They plug it into your house, and thats all apart from providing food.
Here is one a friend used which went down very well. But the set up must be v v expensive.

A local school holiday place does lego parties, but they are very much aimed at the SEN community. And again they have everything ready to go, so set up costs would be high.

How about joining Scouting? That could be perfect to get more hands on experience.

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I don’t know if I’m missing something but why would you pay for what is mostly free building lego? Couldn’t I just do that for free by putting out our lego? Ditto the gaming. I have a Switch, 4 kids could play that in my house for free already and I wouldn’t consider that a party activity… And also if he has communication difficulties I’d honestly wonder if he could handle demanding parents and be able to keep large groups of hyped up 6YOs focused.

It might be better for him to think about trying jobs at clubs- after school clubs or holiday camp providers to get some experience with kids but without the pressure of being solely responsible or needing to have a business idea.

£100 to £175 excluding venue and food is very expensive for a children’s entertainer. Have you compared the prices to other party packages locally?

Lots of young men work as party entertainers around here so that’s not a problem, especially as sport, gaming, magician theme parties.

The key thing though is confidence from point of first contact to hosting. Parties are expensive and I don’t think your pricing sounds OTT at all (this will depend upon region) and they are also stressful. The idea of a host who couldn’t hold children’s attention or deal with poor behaviour is very worrying as you’re responsible for other people’s children as well as your own. They also need bags of ideas up their sleeve for different ages and dynamics.

Without a confident, smooth operation I’d be very wary about committing.

Also I booked almost every party through word of mouth recommendation and then went to the website so don’t be disheartened by that. Think carefully about whether your son is providing a high quality experience because otherwise word of mouth recommendations just won’t take off.

Thank you so much to everyone who has replied so far! I can't tell you how helpful this is. I probably should have explained that I would be supporting this with him initially - there is no way he could cope with a full group of excited kids, so I would definitely be there as well. Having done years of parties for my three I think I could probably cope there. The pricing can be fixed downwards (though crazily is still at the lower end of what is happening around here) and I am thinking it would be better to offer equipment hire (with deposit) and set up/ take down of everything and trouble shooting onsite for games etc. He then wouldn't be the big party host, which feels like the highest risk bit/ where you need the reputation. In terms of what is different - huge range of games and LEGO (tonnes of the stuff, with build table) and a projector hooked up to the gaming so you can play on a wall. £50-75 for that? Would you go for that?

Once again, THANK YOU!

Managing child behaviour at parties is actually a tougher gig than being a TA or teacher.

as a TA you ultimately have the teacher as back up. As teacher you have a school as back up - you can send a child to the head/there is a detention system.

i was a teacher for many years and I also ran the parties for my own kids. You cannot tell off kids at a party and so it’s actually much harder.

I do know people like your son who have gone into education and working with children. They are best off either with older students (sixth form or similar) or with students who are guaranteed to be well behaved.

managing groups of children is an art. You can learn it - most teachers do - but starting a children’s party business really is throwing in at the deep end.

if he really really wants to work with children then he should volunteer with scouts/cubs/beavers etc, look at afterschool clubs. Most schools will take volunteer TAs as well which although he would not be paid would give him the chance to see if he can learn these skills.

I agree with this.

Constructive advice rather than pissing all over the idea like some previous posters.

Get in touch with your local Parent Carer Forum and ask if you could advertise through them, possible by offering a free “taster” party session for 10 children. Maybe do the same on any Local Facebook Groups, offer a limited number of places.

He may get more business initially if he runs it as a club rather than a party?

I would look at Kids with Bricks and see if they have any job openings. They run lego clubs after school and in the holiday’s all over the country. Might be a good opportunity to get more experience. If they don’t currently run then in your area, get him to reach out and say he would be super interested for your area.

Back to the party idea, can he contact local cafes / play areas / soft plays. Sometimes they want somethjng different. Also if you have a local mumbler anything at cheaper prices to start get more advertising.

Being male doesn’t make a difference, can you observe him and give him pointers to improve his communication skills. A massive investment; have you seen the gaming trucks that drive and stop at your house with all the consoles set up I the back.

A lot of party hosts eg science parties etc are people with a performing arts or teaching background. The companies they work for provide the science knowledge & train the actors in it. The interaction with the kids is more important than the computer/lego etc knowledge.

Pricing would be fine where I live as would a male children's entertainer. Have used them myself in venues I control where I have been present at all times and have never had any concerns about their behaviour or professionalism.

I have a daughter with no interest in Lego so it wouldn't be a service I would use but my policy for parties until this year was always to outsource as much of it as possible and I would be delighted to pay someone else to supervise Lego or gaming if the party was for more than 3-4 kids.

I think the real question is whether he can manage a gang of jacked up kids on party food who he can't really tell off whilst also negotiating parents who can also be very entitled and jacked up and generally overinvested in perfection regarding their kids' parties. I get that you would be there to help but that actually is the thing that potentially wouldn't inspire me with confidence, I'm afraid - I don't want the entertainer's mum diving in when I'm trying to resolve a concern I have.

I think he should go and get some experience with an established party provider and consider being part of a pair of entertainers managing Lego and gaming events, perhaps.

If he thinks he can single handedly cater for a party for 20 kids I think he'll be very shocked by just how much work that is.

I honestly don't think even someone very experienced could supervise and teach and entertain alone at a party for that many.

My friend does art parties for little kids of 6-7 and she struggles with much less children than that!

So I'd say he should definitely start smaller.

What is SELD?

social and emotional learning difficulties.

OP. Children's parties are hit hard by reduced discretionary spending, which is a feature of many people's lives at the moment.

Many people would think they could replicate your son's offer themselves for less money.

I really would agree that he would be better served by being an employee - they would be able to provide reasonable adjustments for any disability.

Does he claim UC? This can be helpful in signposting him to organisations that may be able to help/ provide support in employment.

Thanks everyone, I think we have our answer with some really useful tips. I am going to suggest volunteering with the Scouts (he has a contact for this), think about gaming clubs in the scout hut at the weekend (this was suggested as viable at one of our tester parties that we did last week), see if Kids with Bricks have any openings - and encourage him to go for the secondary school TA interview he has next week. I am fully expecting them to say he doesn't have the experience, but he can point out all the transferrable skills he DOES have. And build experience with scouts (and think about SEND experience). Realistically I don't think he'll ever get a primary school TA job - he has offered to volunteer at local schools and they never get back to him. I think the only way he could build the party business is to hire a confident young lady with drama experience to front up that side of things - which would also help with crowd control. One for the future not now clearly. Once again, thanks to everyone who has taken the trouble to reply to this - feeling very foolish for not doing this before.......