If your kids attend a fancy private school, would it be looked down to have a home birthday party?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 10yo DD is at private school and we have always done parties at home. Many of her friends also did parties at home. Here’s some advice/observations. Put your nostalgia aside. Free range parties may have worked in the past but kids and expectations have changed. You need to include some activity. This does not need to be lavish or expensive. It provides some focus and then they can do unstructured stuff the rest of the time if that’s what you want. My DD said the one unstructured party she sent to was boring and the girls broke up into little groups, like at school. Consider whether you want parents staying and whether siblings are also invited. Take the weather into account. If you assume that everybody will be outside, make sure you have a plan B for indoors. Will boys or girls be attending? There came a point when my DS turned 11 that we realized the boy energy levels just didn’t work for at-home parties. A few times we hired a soccer coach to do some drills and a game in our local park and that worked well. My DD and her friends loved crafts and were much easier to manage. At-home parties are a lot more work and the costs can really add up.

Op here. We have hosted home parties with entertainment previously when kids were younger. I was being nostalgic of when I was a kid. I just hate these venue parties. My kids have fun at any party. I wouldn’t want to be the boring party.

[Anonymous]

I’ve always done home parties but I messed up big time for my daughter’s 4th. Usually we’d hire someone — an entertainer. But for some reason for my daughters fourth I decided I could put some music on and play limbo and use the trampoline outside if it was nice out (it wasn’t) and call it a day. Big disaster and I felt so dumb. I’ll continue to have home parties but I will always hire a person to do something (dance, magic, etc)

[Anonymous]

No, I’m in awe of the people who are organized enough to have home parties. Some of the birthday parties my daughter has enjoyed the most involved running around in people’s backyards with squirt guns, or similar simple activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, I’m in awe of the people who are organized enough to have home parties. Some of the birthday parties my daughter has enjoyed the most involved running around in people’s backyards with squirt guns, or similar simple activities.

Ditto. My DD had gone to a home party (only girls). There was a craft activity and a pinata. Finger food, fruits and pizza for kids and adults who stayed. It was organized so well, the kids had a fun time. I was so impressed.