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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We live in a similar neighborhood, and the best ice-breaker for us was to throw a full-class birthday party and put “parents and siblings welcome” on the invitation.

I didn’t get a lot of RSVPs, often just a vague “yeah, they said they could come” second hand from my kid, so I had no idea what to expect on the day. I knew from my Pakistani and Indian friends that it’s just sort of assumed the whole family will come along, and I thought the Ethiopian and Ghanan families might be the same. So I bought a ton of food that we could eat over the next week or two if there were leftovers, had plenty in reserve just in case, and hoped for the best.

Every single family showed up, sometimes with parents, grandparents, and all the kids in tow. I didn’t have a lot planned for kids younger/older than my kid’s class, but they didn’t care. They all had a fabulous time running around the backyard and eating every scrap of food, and the parents at least made an attempt to mingle before gradually separating into cultural and language groups. We all just kind of went with the flow, and let the kids take the lead.

After that, we never had trouble with play dates because the parents knew us. Not everyone reciprocated, though, I suspect in part because they had smaller living spaces. No biggie, the kids were polite and appreciative, and I didn’t mind.

My kid did have a few friends over the years whose parents just assumed the younger siblings would be invited, but most were fine if we occasionally said the kids were hoping to have some time on their own this time. I agonized over how to say no the first time one mom asked if the younger sister could come to a sleepover party, but she was totally chill about it. [/quote]

How thoughtful and generous.  OP, I'm a first generation immigrant, and have always thrown birthday parties like this, and think the drop off ones are odd (but I understand now that my oldest is 7 that I am the outlier here).  The main thing is that they definitely don't do drop off's.  They are likely very friendly, you just need to "open your home to them" and they will do the same.  [/quote]

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