Ice skating bday party

[Anonymous]

I really hate ice skating parties. Ice skating is notorious for injuries. I know of one child knocked unconscious and taken away in an ambulance and another who ended up with a broken arm. Great parties. If your kid takes lessons and is a confident skater that’s great but don’t assume other kids will do as well. I’ve been to plenty of parties where the only decent skater was the birthday child and one or two others and the rest of the kids clung to the walls. Parents need to be on site to make sure the skates are laced up properly. It’s a total pain. It’s also much kinder to host a party where all of the kids can fully participate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really hate ice skating parties. Ice skating is notorious for injuries. I know of one child knocked unconscious and taken away in an ambulance and another who ended up with a broken arm. Great parties. If your kid takes lessons and is a confident skater that’s great but don’t assume other kids will do as well. I’ve been to plenty of parties where the only decent skater was the birthday child and one or two others and the rest of the kids clung to the walls. Parents need to be on site to make sure the skates are laced up properly. It’s a total pain. It’s also much kinder to host a party where all of the kids can fully participate.

+1 exactly. I also wouldn’t feel comfortable hosting this kind of a party where the majority of kids are not skaters and injuries could easily happen. This just isn’t a good time for anyone except maybe the birthday kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hate ice skating parties. Ice skating is notorious for injuries. I know of one child knocked unconscious and taken away in an ambulance and another who ended up with a broken arm. Great parties. If your kid takes lessons and is a confident skater that’s great but don’t assume other kids will do as well. I’ve been to plenty of parties where the only decent skater was the birthday child and one or two others and the rest of the kids clung to the walls. Parents need to be on site to make sure the skates are laced up properly. It’s a total pain. It’s also much kinder to host a party where all of the kids can fully participate.

+1 exactly. I also wouldn’t feel comfortable hosting this kind of a party where the majority of kids are not skaters and injuries could easily happen. This just isn’t a good time for anyone except maybe the birthday kid.

This is not what I’ve seen when taking my own kids to skating parties (and fwiw, only one of my kids took any lessons, a grand total of 4).

I assume the kids who couldn’t skate declined, but there were plenty of attendees who were hardly professional skaters, but did just fine and most importantly, had fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hate ice skating parties. Ice skating is notorious for injuries. I know of one child knocked unconscious and taken away in an ambulance and another who ended up with a broken arm. Great parties. If your kid takes lessons and is a confident skater that’s great but don’t assume other kids will do as well. I’ve been to plenty of parties where the only decent skater was the birthday child and one or two others and the rest of the kids clung to the walls. Parents need to be on site to make sure the skates are laced up properly. It’s a total pain. It’s also much kinder to host a party where all of the kids can fully participate.

+1 exactly. I also wouldn’t feel comfortable hosting this kind of a party where the majority of kids are not skaters and injuries could easily happen. This just isn’t a good time for anyone except maybe the birthday kid.

This is not what I’ve seen when taking my own kids to skating parties (and fwiw, only one of my kids took any lessons, a grand total of 4).

I assume the kids who couldn’t skate declined, but there were plenty of attendees who were hardly professional skaters, but did just fine and most importantly, had fun.

Why didn’t you drop off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hate ice skating parties. Ice skating is notorious for injuries. I know of one child knocked unconscious and taken away in an ambulance and another who ended up with a broken arm. Great parties. If your kid takes lessons and is a confident skater that’s great but don’t assume other kids will do as well. I’ve been to plenty of parties where the only decent skater was the birthday child and one or two others and the rest of the kids clung to the walls. Parents need to be on site to make sure the skates are laced up properly. It’s a total pain. It’s also much kinder to host a party where all of the kids can fully participate.

+1 exactly. I also wouldn’t feel comfortable hosting this kind of a party where the majority of kids are not skaters and injuries could easily happen. This just isn’t a good time for anyone except maybe the birthday kid.

This is not what I’ve seen when taking my own kids to skating parties (and fwiw, only one of my kids took any lessons, a grand total of 4).

I assume the kids who couldn’t skate declined, but there were plenty of attendees who were hardly professional skaters, but did just fine and most importantly, had fun.

They probably had skated before then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really hate ice skating parties. Ice skating is notorious for injuries. I know of one child knocked unconscious and taken away in an ambulance and another who ended up with a broken arm. Great parties. If your kid takes lessons and is a confident skater that’s great but don’t assume other kids will do as well. I’ve been to plenty of parties where the only decent skater was the birthday child and one or two others and the rest of the kids clung to the walls. Parents need to be on site to make sure the skates are laced up properly. It’s a total pain. It’s also much kinder to host a party where all of the kids can fully participate.

Is ice skating notorious for injuries? I grew up and Canada so I ice skated a lot as a child, and go pretty regularly with my own children and their friends. I've taught a lot of kids to skate. Outside of hockey (which is notorious for injuries), I've never been at a rink or on an outdoor skating surface, and seen an injury that needed more than a few minutes off the ice and some hot chocolate to cheer the child up. I've seen really scary ski accidents, and known kids who had scary ski accidents. I've seen kids taken off by ambulance from the trampoline park, and the playground, and the playing field. I've known a kid with a broken foot because he dropped a bowling ball on it, and a kid in the hospital from a near drowning, and several biking accident.

Wear a helmet, and thick gloves or mittens, just to be sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hate ice skating parties. Ice skating is notorious for injuries. I know of one child knocked unconscious and taken away in an ambulance and another who ended up with a broken arm. Great parties. If your kid takes lessons and is a confident skater that’s great but don’t assume other kids will do as well. I’ve been to plenty of parties where the only decent skater was the birthday child and one or two others and the rest of the kids clung to the walls. Parents need to be on site to make sure the skates are laced up properly. It’s a total pain. It’s also much kinder to host a party where all of the kids can fully participate.

Is ice skating notorious for injuries? I grew up and Canada so I ice skated a lot as a child, and go pretty regularly with my own children and their friends. I've taught a lot of kids to skate. Outside of hockey (which is notorious for injuries), I've never been at a rink or on an outdoor skating surface, and seen an injury that needed more than a few minutes off the ice and some hot chocolate to cheer the child up. I've seen really scary ski accidents, and known kids who had scary ski accidents. I've seen kids taken off by ambulance from the trampoline park, and the playground, and the playing field. I've known a kid with a broken foot because he dropped a bowling ball on it, and a kid in the hospital from a near drowning, and several biking accident.

Wear a helmet, and thick gloves or mittens, just to be sure.

+1 I've never a skating injury that required an ambulance though, and I spend most of my childhood in ice rinks. That being said, I definitely respect original PP's caution; if they don't feel safe with ice rinks, they're entitled to not take their child skating. I have a friend who was extremely uncomfortable with bounce house parties for our preschoolers because the chance of injury is actually pretty high. I'm wary of letting my kids go to trampoline parks since I didn't grow up with them and have seen some pretty horrific injuries from trampolines. I think two things can be true:
- some parents find ice skating unacceptably dangerous and hate ice skating parties
- some parents find ice skating to be a totally benign hobby and like ice skating parties

I just wish these two groups of parents would stop claiming they speak for everyone. It sounds like OP's kid's friend group is pro-ice skating so hopefully the party will be enjoyable for all.

[Anonymous]

Op, can you and spouse handle supervision and helping with skates and novice skaters yourselves? If you can’t then I would wait until the kids are older and able to handle things themselves. I think it is rude to plan a birthday party for a third graders that require a parent to stay, participant, and help you supervise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, can you and spouse handle supervision and helping with skates and novice skaters yourselves? If you can’t then I would wait until the kids are older and able to handle things themselves. I think it is rude to plan a birthday party for a third graders that require a parent to stay, participant, and help you supervise.

+1

[Anonymous]

I'm shocked at all these negative reactions. I never went to an ice skating party but learned to roller skate at a birthday party along with all the other kids. I doubt it's much different from that other than parents weren't whining back in the 80s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm shocked at all these negative reactions. I never went to an ice skating party but learned to roller skate at a birthday party along with all the other kids. I doubt it's much different from that other than parents weren't whining back in the 80s.

Me too! I grew up in FL and everyone used to have ice skating parties. They were so popular. We did have a very nice ice skating rink in the area but not everyone ice skated like kids in Canada or New England. I don't remember any injuries, I don't remember anyone being upset, but I do remember that birthday party room at the RDV Sportsplex. Good times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm shocked at all these negative reactions. I never went to an ice skating party but learned to roller skate at a birthday party along with all the other kids. I doubt it's much different from that other than parents weren't whining back in the 80s.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm shocked at all these negative reactions. I never went to an ice skating party but learned to roller skate at a birthday party along with all the other kids. I doubt it's much different from that other than parents weren't whining back in the 80s.

Roller skating is not comparable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3rd grade is a tough age to do an ice skating party. Many kids will not have skated before. Parents may have to stay to help. Not really fun for beginners.

Disagree. We did it for preschoolers and it was fun. Parents did stay.

3rd grade isn't preschool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3rd grade is a tough age to do an ice skating party. Many kids will not have skated before. Parents may have to stay to help. Not really fun for beginners.

Disagree. We did it for preschoolers and it was fun. Parents did stay.

3rd grade isn't preschool.

Right, meaning the kids are far more capable.

The negativity is nuts. Poor kids.