Do you invite everyone in your 2nd grader's class?

[Anonymous]

Or a select group of friends?

[Anonymous]

oops, I meant to say, to a 2nd grade birthday party.

[Anonymous]

No. Many will disagree with me, but No.

My rule is invite fewer than half, or invite all. You don't have to include everyone, but you can't single kids out.

Honestly, its the moms who care more than the kids.

By second grade, kids have preferences, and not all the kids in the class may treat your child well enough to deserve an invite.

[Anonymous]

Amen sister. There are several children in my child's class whom I would NEVER invite to my house. I have actually been scaling down bdays over the past couple of years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. Many will disagree with me, but No.

My rule is invite fewer than half, or invite all. You don't have to include everyone, but you can't single kids out.

Honestly, its the moms who care more than the kids.

By second grade, kids have preferences, and not all the kids in the class may treat your child well enough to deserve an invite.

If it's a small private school class-YES. Large class with 30-35 kids? NO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. Many will disagree with me, but No.

My rule is invite fewer than half, or invite all. You don't have to include everyone, but you can't single kids out.

Honestly, its the moms who care more than the kids.

By second grade, kids have preferences, and not all the kids in the class may treat your child well enough to deserve an invite.

If it's a small private school class-YES. Large class with 30-35 kids? NO.

Or if it is small public school class - YES. My DS has 16 kids in his 2nd grade class and we're planning on inviting them all.

[Anonymous]

I think the kids do get their feelings hurt. I’ve volunteered in classrooms when all of the girls were talking about a party that one or two of the girls weren’t invited to and those few girls were very hurt.

[Anonymous]

Of course they were. Children are very perceptive. You can invite all the girls, or all the boys, but please don't invite a select few. It sets a good precedent in the class that cliques won't be tolerated (or, at least, will be frowned upon). ---- teacher

[Anonymous]

OP here. I would love to invite everyone, but 23 kids is going to be quite pricey on my limited budget. We are never invited to girls' parties, and usually receive invites via email to my DS's close friends' parties.

I thought about having it at home to save $, instead of an ice skating or bowling party, but my house is tiny. I thought about outdoors, but the weather may be too cold at the end of the month. But at the same time I don't want to be rude.

[Anonymous]

Inviting all the girls but one or two in a class is the problem.

Inviting JUST 2 girls -- your child's friends -- really should not be a problem. THat's not being cliquey, that's inviting the girls you feel close to, the ones you play with after school or on weekends. That said, you should be sure that your child isn't really being cliquey and exclusionary with birthday party invites or anything else.

[Anonymous]

Is it 23 in the entire class? Then just invite girls (or boys, whatever the case may be).

[Anonymous]

If you only want to invite a handful of classmates - that is OK as well.

So if there are 23 in the class - 12 boys / 11 girls - and you want to invite 6 boys to a birthday party that is OK. If there are ever just a few left out(of either a gender or the class), I think it is best to invite them all.

[Anonymous]

I'm 23:42 again. OP - I would respect your limits and your budget. If you don't invite every single child, though, please use evite or the phone. Handing out invites to some kids, but not others, is indiscrete.

As others have pointed out, excluding one or two isn't acceptable but inviting half is truly fine.

Also, please stay within your budget, and don't feel pressured to spend more than you would like. If your kid is into skating, then have the skating party for half a dozen kids. My son gets invited to some but far from all the parties, and he is emerging unscathed.

Plus, you "invite everyone" folks - how do you handle the invites for the (actual) friends of your child that are NOT in your child's class this year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Plus, you "invite everyone" folks - how do you handle the invites for the (actual) friends of your child that are NOT in your child's class this year?

Invite them as well.

DS has 16 kids in his 2nd grade class. We'll be inviting the whole class plus 5 other friends to his party (December, at the movies). We know that not all will show up and we'll probably end up with around 15 kids.

[Anonymous]

My son is pretty shy and doesn't want a big party--only a few friends. I figure it's okay if we only invite 3-4 from his class. He just prefers a small group of kids who he is really comfortable with.