Planning 3rd birthday party - faux pas to avoid?

[Anonymous]

This is new to me since my daughter is oldest in her class and turning 3 in Oct.

I would like to invite our family friends plus her class of 12 to a party at our home with a bounce house from 3:30 - 7 pm.

I plan to send her to school with magnet invitations (is that awful?) and everyone else via text invite

Any warnings or things to look out for?

[Anonymous]

Advise on the invitation if siblings are welcome or not.
Do not mention gifts at all
Advise what you are providing as far as food
That’s it.

[Anonymous]

Magnet invitations seem a little over-the-top for a 3-year-old's birthday party.

[Anonymous]

Make sure to be mindful of diversity, inclusion, and equity in choosing who to invite.

[Anonymous]

3:30 to 7pm is way too long a party for that age group. I'd say 4-6:30.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Magnet invitations seem a little over-the-top for a 3-year-old's birthday party.

We got a lot of magnet save-the-date things for weddings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Magnet invitations seem a little over-the-top for a 3-year-old's birthday party.

I also think 3:30-7 is awfully long for a party for school friends. Maybe your family friends would want to stay longer, but that is way too many hours of wrangling kids, in my opinion, both for hosts and parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Magnet invitations seem a little over-the-top for a 3-year-old's birthday party.

Haha ok, good to know! I found them for $3 a piece (only need 12 for school), but I think you’re right.

[Anonymous]

3:30-7 is realllllly long. My child’s bedtime was 7pm at 3 years old and - 3.5 hour party definitely would have been too long. Especially for kids who may require diaper changes. My favorite parties are short and sweet. 1 hour 45 min - 2 hours.

[Anonymous]

OP here - ok, I will shorten the time window, Ty for the head’s up!

I can put different time table for family friends text invite and make the the school friends card invite short (2 hours sounds perfect)

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t go past 6, maybe 6:30 at that age. At 3 DD was in the bath by 6:30 and bed by 7/7:30. We stretched it for special occasions but it was always a bit annoying to do so.

[Anonymous]

My 3.5 yr old naps from 1 or 1:30 pm to 3:30 or 4pm, and then goes to bed at 7pm.

[Anonymous]

DD turned 3 last school-year. We didnt do a party bc of COVID and she didnt seem to care.

So far kids in her class have done Evite for the invite. I was kind of suprised since I hadnt used Evite for more than a decade when it faded in favor of Paperless Post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is new to me since my daughter is oldest in her class and turning 3 in Oct.

I would like to invite our family friends plus her class of 12 to a party at our home with a bounce house from 3:30 - 7 pm.

I plan to send her to school with magnet invitations (is that awful?) and everyone else via text invite

Any warnings or things to look out for?

This birthday party is way too long. I would do 90 minutes to 2 hours. 4-6 or 3:30-5:30 are good times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - ok, I will shorten the time window, Ty for the head’s up!

I can put different time table for family friends text invite and make the the school friends card invite short (2 hours sounds perfect)

Do NOT do this. You are having an event, you don’t invite some people for all of it and some people for only part of it.