This thread makes me nervous. This year, all of my kid's classmates parties are falling back to back. One month straight of birthday parties, and my kid's party is the last one before break. Fingers crossed that more than 1 or 2 kids show up!

I always let it be my kids' decision. Generally the only time they say no to going is if it's a kid they're not friends with and my kid says, Oh, she has one of those moms that makes her invite the whole class. But we're not really friends.

We once had 5 in one weekend for one kid and I had to put my foot down and say only one piece of cake each day.

Anonymous wrote:Mine started to slow down in grade 2 - maybe my kids are just unpopular? By 2nd-3rd grade, the kids are so busy during the weekends with sports that there isn't time for big parties half the year anyway.

+1. The trend also becomes to just have one or two friends to do something special-- so naturally no more big parties.

Mine started to slow down in grade 2 - maybe my kids are just unpopular? By 2nd-3rd grade, the kids are so busy during the weekends with sports that there isn't time for big parties half the year anyway.

We say no all the time. I have 4 kids in ES. We make our weekend plans independent of parties (unless it is a 'best friend'). If it is a weekend that we have nothing on and the child really wants to go then they go.

The end of second grade was when we saw the decline of birthday parties. From third through fifth, there were a handful a year. By middle school, very few.

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I didn't notice a decline until around 5th grade. My now 7th grader gets invited to maybe 2 parties a year at this point.

Just do what you can, no need to feel obligated to attend every party they are invited too.

That's what I was going to say as well. I would not feel an obligation to attend every party. And as we all know from having to issue tons of invitations to our own kids' parties, the hosts will probably not be devastated to have a few invitees decline!

Honestly, I didn't notice a decline until around 5th grade. My now 7th grader gets invited to maybe 2 parties a year at this point.

Just do what you can, no need to feel obligated to attend every party they are invited too.

JUST SAY NO! Unless it's a very good friend or a fun event that's also open to siblings, I've started to pass on these events. My 2nd grade DD doesn't miss it at all (sometimes I never even tell her) and our weekends are soo much more pleasant.

My twins are in second grade and I thought by now the birthday party invitations would slow down. I just looked back over my calendar for the past three months and we've had at least one party every weekend since school started, sometimes as many as three. I have three unanswered invites for December parties in my inbox, waiting for reply.

Parents of older kids, at some point do you just start saying no to some of these invites? Should we let our kids decide which parties they want to attend? How do you handle? TIA!