Birthday party at public playground: drop off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd stay. I don't think that a few adults can keep track of so many kids at once.

Teachers/aides manage to do so every school day.

With specific training and experience.

Also, most teachers aren't taking their kids on field trips to wide open public parks on the first day of school. They wait until they've established relationships, authority, and expectations.

[Anonymous]

Yes. You are totally being a helicopter mom. If you stay, please stay in your car. Don't sit 10 feet off to the side or hover over your kid.

[Anonymous]

7 y.o. is kind of around the transition point of what's obvious to do. My ILs brought niece and nephew (6.5) to visit recently, and we took them to a large park. Nephew remembered a further away play structure from a previous visit, and dashed off without telling anyone. DH eventually found him, but even after several lectures from DH and ILs, I don't think nephew understood what he did wrong. I know other 6.5 y.o. who would never do that.

So some of this is about your kid, but if another kid did that the hosts might be overwhelmed and unable to provide adequate supervision to your kid.

Go to the party, stick around for a bit to see what other people ar doing and get a feel for the parents...then make a decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd stay. I don't think that a few adults can keep track of so many kids at once.

Teachers/aides manage to do so every school day.

Yeah in an enclosed room or an enclosed playground.

There are school playgrounds that are not enclosed. And what difference does that make in this case? The kid is 7, not 3. I highly doubt he's going to dart into the street if the playground isn't fenced in!

And some of the kids wander and the teachers don't do much about it as they cannot see. Its especially bad in the after care from what I've observed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. You are totally being a helicopter mom. If you stay, please stay in your car. Don't sit 10 feet off to the side or hover over your kid.

Really, the host is going to be busy hosting, coordinating food, and clean up/set up. They aren't going to be watching each child on a spread out playground. I wouldn't do a drop off at 7 and a loosely supervised place where anyone could grab your child.

[Anonymous]

I would do it with the expectation that my kid would stay with the group. At 7, he wouldn't wander off. I wouldn't expect the host to keep track of him particularly.

[Anonymous]

I hosted a playground party and everyone stayed. Parents mingled and chatted. Just be sure to have enough food for all (nobody ate as much as I thought they would). Everyone had a good time.

[Anonymous]

Of course not. Stay!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd stay. I don't think that a few adults can keep track of so many kids at once.

Teachers/aides manage to do so every school day.

With specific training and experience.

Also, most teachers aren't taking their kids on field trips to wide open public parks on the first day of school. They wait until they've established relationships, authority, and expectations.

h

How much specific training do you think teacher's aides & camp counselors get? Not much! And, as a PP pointed out, many school playgrounds are not enclosed.