Birthday Q about water parks

[Anonymous]

Dd has a summer birthday and she’s turning 10. I wanted to invite her friends to the water park near our house.

Do I have to invite and pay for parents? Dh and I would both be there to supervise. The water park doesn’t allow people in who aren’t paying.

[Anonymous]

At ten it's a drop-off party. So why would you invite parents? Just specify it's drop off and pay for the kids.

[Anonymous]

How many kids are you inviting? I assume under 5 - which would be a manageable number for the two of you to supervise.

If this is the case, then No, you do not need to pay for the parents if you have enough eyes / hands to supervise.

If any parent wants to join the kid, they can pay for themselves.

[Anonymous]

How many kids, can they all swim, any special needs, and what size water park are all questions I would have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dd has a summer birthday and she’s turning 10. I wanted to invite her friends to the water park near our house.

Do I have to invite and pay for parents? Dh and I would both be there to supervise. The water park doesn’t allow people in who aren’t paying.

How many friends??

[Anonymous]

We are combining with another kids so that we can pay for everyone. I think 50 is the limit for groups.

[Anonymous]

If you and your DH are supervising and the park has lifeguards and the kids all know how to swim and are generally well behaved/easy to manage kids, I think it’s fine to have it be a drop off party and not offer to pay for parents to attend. I’m a very cautious parent but I’d allow my 10 year old who is a good swimmer to attend without me. If he wasn’t a good swimmer, I wouldn’t. If I didn’t trust the parents to actually supervise the kids, I wouldn’t. If there were no lifeguards, I wouldn’t.

Just don’t invite more kids than you can manage. I think 10 kids (ratio of 5 kids to 1 adult) including your DD is the absolute max but would be more comfortable w 7-8 kids total. It’s hard to watch them at a water park! You’ll have some wanting to do large water slides and some doing the wave pool and one who stays in the lazy river the whole time lol. So keep it small and verify w parents beforehand that their kids can swim and know basic water safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are combining with another kids so that we can pay for everyone. I think 50 is the limit for groups.

50 kids! That is way too many for just you and your DH to supervise and keep track of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are combining with another kids so that we can pay for everyone. I think 50 is the limit for groups.

Op here. That’s not me, just someone trolling. Not sure how many girls. 5-8 likely.

[Anonymous]

Op here. No special needs and all can swim. Most are on our neighborhood swim team with us but we’ve seen all at the neighborhood pool.

[Anonymous]

I think it is fine.

Although my kids could swim well by 10 I would only let my kid go in a even number group ie buddy up. And 8 is too many. Four total.

[Anonymous]

If you know they can swim, I think dropoff is totally fine at 10.
The Nova parks water parks also have free entry for an adult/kid for birthday parties. It was an awesome deal when my kids were younger.

[Anonymous]

Best if you go with three adults total. Here's some tips for you about crowd control:

1. Have a meet-up spot. One adult stays there for the entire party. Kids can leave crap with them, they can take a break there if they want, go there to ask questions, announce problems, whatever.

2. Every kid has to have a waterproof watch.* Everyone has to meet up at the meetup spot once an hour (or whatever you decide). It's a way for you to count the kids and limits the amount of time any kid is lost if that were to happen.

3. Kids need to be in groups of at LEAST three. One kid gets injured, second kid stays with them, third kid runs to get help. They can switch groups, but each group must have at least three, and nobody stays in the water alone.

4. As you're about to walk into the park you tell the kids what time you're all leaving and where to meet up at that time. (It's the meet up spot where one adult has been the whole time.)

I used to work as a camp counselor for tweens that we took each day on field trips.

[Anonymous]

No you don’t need to pay for parents.
You could say on the invite” this is a drop off party unless your child cannot swim, lifeguards are on duty at all times”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Best if you go with three adults total. Here's some tips for you about crowd control:

1. Have a meet-up spot. One adult stays there for the entire party. Kids can leave crap with them, they can take a break there if they want, go there to ask questions, announce problems, whatever.

2. Every kid has to have a waterproof watch.* Everyone has to meet up at the meetup spot once an hour (or whatever you decide). It's a way for you to count the kids and limits the amount of time any kid is lost if that were to happen.

3. Kids need to be in groups of at LEAST three. One kid gets injured, second kid stays with them, third kid runs to get help. They can switch groups, but each group must have at least three, and nobody stays in the water alone.

4. As you're about to walk into the park you tell the kids what time you're all leaving and where to meet up at that time. (It's the meet up spot where one adult has been the whole time.)

I used to work as a camp counselor for tweens that we took each day on field trips.

My kid is an excellent swimmer but doesn’t own a waterproof watch. It’s not 1993 Beryl.