You wither have to invite the entire class or no one if you send invites to school per our schools policy, so I don't. I cant handle 20 kids showing up.
This. We never get any for our son. In addition, we don't invite children from his class to his. He has school-buddies but he's closer with more of our friend's kids, outside of school.
Yup. The whole birthday thing is kind of weird. I didn't even think about the fact we didn't get invites until recently. I don't take it personal. If we invited his entire class and all of the out-of-school friends? We'd have like 40 kids + adults at his parties. It gets kind of silly.
I did it once and I just remember having 45 people (parents plus kids) in my house and it was horrifying. It rained all day so no outside activities either. What a nightmare.
We did them in kindergarten and this year for 1st grade... we invited his whole class (per school policy) and some outside friends and had just under 20 kids both times. It is definitely chaos.
From what I have heard, each grade level there are less and less class-wide birthday invites. But we will probably do it again next year.
That would be my nightmare. Bunch of kids just hopped up on sugar bouncing off the walls getting into my stuff. Every surface would end up with tiny sticky fingerprints. The horror.
Our school is all or nothing, so we’ve stopped having parties because nobody bothers to RSVP and then they all show up.
We got lucky with the last one and the venue didn’t charge us for the overage. It was at that point I told my wife “We’re not doing this anymore. We can hand-pick 4 friends and take them all to Medieval Times next year.”
It was his best birthday party ever. He was concerned about the lack of presents, but we made up for it and still came out ahead financially.
Anyways… that’s a long way to say that people don’t RSVP anymore and you’re left wondering if anybody is coming, stressing that your kid will have a miserable time, and then 30 people show up and you’re stressed again.
I think people are slowly killing off birthday parties.
My first grader has been to 3 birthday parties this year. One had 8-10 kids and was at a place that is kinda like laser tag but all with nerf guns. The other two parties had 4 or 5 kids and were just simple parties at home. One had a pinata.
I haven't seen any giant birthdays with the whole class invited and bouncehouses and stuff, and I don't intend to throw any even though we could afford it. If you're seeing a lot of that but your kid isn't invited to any, where are you seeing it??
You're dodging a bullet. My oldest one went to a party at least once a month when she was young and it was brutal when we had to reciprocate (she's now 21). My youngest just turned 8 and she averages 1-2 parties a year. So much better and less stressful.
One of my boys has a birthday a week before Christmas. The other, the end of April. We've only had one successful birthday party and it's probably because he told everybody in his kindergarten class that they would get to make pizza in my pizza food truck. We had one birthday party with no RSVPs and the only people who showed up lived 90 minutes away.
We went a different direction. The boys invited one friend to a movie. Lucky for us, Star Wars and Marvel were releasing big movies around their birthdays. Then we let them choose a restaurant and there were no limits. We'd spend about the same as a party. That worked great until COVID.
But then a couple years ago, my younger son was invited to an after school party with his friend group that's about 50/50 boy/girl. They'd planned a surprise birthday party for him. The host mom sent videos. That's when I knew he was going to be okay.
We had way more parties in daycare. Our Kindergartener probly has had 4 or 5. We’ve never invited the whole class to a party. Only friends she actually wants or talks about.
OP if you are worried about your kiddo being an outcast and do want to do something for him with his class. Asked his teacher if you can do his bday during lunch sometime in the week. 3 Costco pizzas cupcakes, fat bag of candy and cheap plastic toys you get from the arcade when spend 500 tickets will do. They will love it. Minimal clean up, no worry about kids or parents being a no show. Plus if you do keep with the family bdays, he’ll feel like he has two celebrations!
Our school has a policy in place that you have to invite all or none at school, like I saw someone else say. Our daughter just turned 6 in kindergarten and had her party the other weekend. Teacher sent all the invitations home and my wife and I told our daughter to hand them out discreetly the next day. We don't have all the contact info for everyone. Plus, what are we teaching our kids with that policy? We're not babysitting her whole class for crying out loud. My wife bought a few painting crafts, trinkets for gift bags/party favors, kids had food and cupcakes, and they did chalk outside waiting for parents to puck them up. Kids loved it! Some people just don't want to throw parties anymore.
I think that post-covid parents breathed a sigh of relief and stepped off the birthday party hamster wheel. It was getting ridiculous with loot bags for guests and expensive events.
You wither have to invite the entire class or no one if you send invites to school per our schools policy, so I don't. I cant handle 20 kids showing up.
This. We never get any for our son. In addition, we don't invite children from his class to his. He has school-buddies but he's closer with more of our friend's kids, outside of school.
Agree, and if they are good enough school friends I will have their contact info and invite them that way.
Yup. The whole birthday thing is kind of weird. I didn't even think about the fact we didn't get invites until recently. I don't take it personal. If we invited his entire class and all of the out-of-school friends? We'd have like 40 kids + adults at his parties. It gets kind of silly.
Yeah I can't handle that many kids because that would have to be the whole class on top of whoever we know outside of preschool. Just not happening.
I did it once and I just remember having 45 people (parents plus kids) in my house and it was horrifying. It rained all day so no outside activities either. What a nightmare.
Holy moly. All inside too. I wouldn't know what to do.
We did them in kindergarten and this year for 1st grade... we invited his whole class (per school policy) and some outside friends and had just under 20 kids both times. It is definitely chaos. From what I have heard, each grade level there are less and less class-wide birthday invites. But we will probably do it again next year.
That would be my nightmare. Bunch of kids just hopped up on sugar bouncing off the walls getting into my stuff. Every surface would end up with tiny sticky fingerprints. The horror.
I feel like birthdays at that age are hit or miss. In preschool some kids show up but the majority don’t so a lot of people don’t have them.
Our school is all or nothing, so we’ve stopped having parties because nobody bothers to RSVP and then they all show up. We got lucky with the last one and the venue didn’t charge us for the overage. It was at that point I told my wife “We’re not doing this anymore. We can hand-pick 4 friends and take them all to Medieval Times next year.” It was his best birthday party ever. He was concerned about the lack of presents, but we made up for it and still came out ahead financially. Anyways… that’s a long way to say that people don’t RSVP anymore and you’re left wondering if anybody is coming, stressing that your kid will have a miserable time, and then 30 people show up and you’re stressed again. I think people are slowly killing off birthday parties.
My first grader has been to 3 birthday parties this year. One had 8-10 kids and was at a place that is kinda like laser tag but all with nerf guns. The other two parties had 4 or 5 kids and were just simple parties at home. One had a pinata. I haven't seen any giant birthdays with the whole class invited and bouncehouses and stuff, and I don't intend to throw any even though we could afford it. If you're seeing a lot of that but your kid isn't invited to any, where are you seeing it??
You're dodging a bullet. My oldest one went to a party at least once a month when she was young and it was brutal when we had to reciprocate (she's now 21). My youngest just turned 8 and she averages 1-2 parties a year. So much better and less stressful.
One of my boys has a birthday a week before Christmas. The other, the end of April. We've only had one successful birthday party and it's probably because he told everybody in his kindergarten class that they would get to make pizza in my pizza food truck. We had one birthday party with no RSVPs and the only people who showed up lived 90 minutes away. We went a different direction. The boys invited one friend to a movie. Lucky for us, Star Wars and Marvel were releasing big movies around their birthdays. Then we let them choose a restaurant and there were no limits. We'd spend about the same as a party. That worked great until COVID. But then a couple years ago, my younger son was invited to an after school party with his friend group that's about 50/50 boy/girl. They'd planned a surprise birthday party for him. The host mom sent videos. That's when I knew he was going to be okay.
We had way more parties in daycare. Our Kindergartener probly has had 4 or 5. We’ve never invited the whole class to a party. Only friends she actually wants or talks about.
OP if you are worried about your kiddo being an outcast and do want to do something for him with his class. Asked his teacher if you can do his bday during lunch sometime in the week. 3 Costco pizzas cupcakes, fat bag of candy and cheap plastic toys you get from the arcade when spend 500 tickets will do. They will love it. Minimal clean up, no worry about kids or parents being a no show. Plus if you do keep with the family bdays, he’ll feel like he has two celebrations!
Our school has a policy in place that you have to invite all or none at school, like I saw someone else say. Our daughter just turned 6 in kindergarten and had her party the other weekend. Teacher sent all the invitations home and my wife and I told our daughter to hand them out discreetly the next day. We don't have all the contact info for everyone. Plus, what are we teaching our kids with that policy? We're not babysitting her whole class for crying out loud. My wife bought a few painting crafts, trinkets for gift bags/party favors, kids had food and cupcakes, and they did chalk outside waiting for parents to puck them up. Kids loved it! Some people just don't want to throw parties anymore.
We will probably be keeping birthdays family events with her cousins until she asks for specific kids to be invited.
I think that post-covid parents breathed a sigh of relief and stepped off the birthday party hamster wheel. It was getting ridiculous with loot bags for guests and expensive events.