Omg, no balloons. Please. Your kid would be so embarrassed by that, I am SURE!

Anonymous wrote:On behalf of your son, God, please no.

No favors. No skittles. No balloons. No pictures.

Have you ever actually met a 13 year old boy?

Op here. I feel this is the last time I will be able to do this. He has attended a few parties recently where they had the fancy backdrops (Dastar Bandhi, Bar Mitzvah) and the kids seemed to enjoy it. I totally know that the decorations are for me and not DS. We live in an affluent area where those parties were definitely planned with a party planner. Ours would be a normal party where I just pick up some stuff from party city.

When my kids were younger, I used to have themed parties and play dates for Halloween, Valentine’s Day, etc. He always liked these. Sigh. I realize my kid is no longer little.

This is something for a 3 year old.

Anonymous wrote:Activities should be simple:

- Multiple tvs / gaming systems to play Fortnite / COD together
- Air hockey or Ping Pong Tournament
- Wiffleball HR derby / Blitzball Game

For food:

- Each kid gets their own 2L of Soda. Lots of variety to choose from. Make sure to get some unusual flavors like Cherry Dr Pepper or Grape Fanta. They need those flavors to make unusual combinations with the next item on the list
- Dozens of bags of Takis. The grosser flavors, the better
- A couple of trays of nuggest from Chic Fil A

And then No Favors. The kids can take home any extra Takis

+1

You gotta meet them where they are. And where they are is in the basement, covered in cheeto dust

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Activities should be simple:

- Multiple tvs / gaming systems to play Fortnite / COD together
- Air hockey or Ping Pong Tournament
- Wiffleball HR derby / Blitzball Game

For food:

- Each kid gets their own 2L of Soda. Lots of variety to choose from. Make sure to get some unusual flavors like Cherry Dr Pepper or Grape Fanta. They need those flavors to make unusual combinations with the next item on the list
- Dozens of bags of Takis. The grosser flavors, the better
- A couple of trays of nuggest from Chic Fil A

And then No Favors. The kids can take home any extra Takis

This food. No.

Oh, it's gross, for sure. But if the goal is to make the bday boy and his guests happy, that's gotta be the spirit of the food.

Anonymous wrote:Activities should be simple:

- Multiple tvs / gaming systems to play Fortnite / COD together
- Air hockey or Ping Pong Tournament
- Wiffleball HR derby / Blitzball Game

For food:

- Each kid gets their own 2L of Soda. Lots of variety to choose from. Make sure to get some unusual flavors like Cherry Dr Pepper or Grape Fanta. They need those flavors to make unusual combinations with the next item on the list
- Dozens of bags of Takis. The grosser flavors, the better
- A couple of trays of nuggest from Chic Fil A

And then No Favors. The kids can take home any extra Takis

This food. No.

Activities should be simple:

- Multiple tvs / gaming systems to play Fortnite / COD together
- Air hockey or Ping Pong Tournament
- Wiffleball HR derby / Blitzball Game

For food:

- Each kid gets their own 2L of Soda. Lots of variety to choose from. Make sure to get some unusual flavors like Cherry Dr Pepper or Grape Fanta. They need those flavors to make unusual combinations with the next item on the list
- Dozens of bags of Takis. The grosser flavors, the better
- A couple of trays of nuggest from Chic Fil A

And then No Favors. The kids can take home any extra Takis

On behalf of your son, God, please no.

No favors. No skittles. No balloons. No pictures.

Have you ever actually met a 13 year old boy?

Bubbles and sidewalk chalk obviously.

I can see my 13yo cringing hard at some of these suggestions. Some of you clearly do not have teen boys.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You could provide colored construction paper for them to make paper airplanes. Rubics cubes for party favors.

13 yr old boys do NOT want to make paper airplanes.

Plus 1

Anonymous wrote:I’ve got 3 teenaged boys, youngest is 13, and I wouldn’t recommend balloons/backdrop or favors. Just give them something to do and feed them. My oldest was immature and I probably would have done this for him just b/c I would have been indexing off the kid I had, but my youngest - who is markedly different, largely as a byproduct of having older brothers - would be very embarrassed.

This, they just want to be fed. They don't care about all that. Girls care, boys don't.

Amazon has great Level 13 game banner backdrops, we hung outside of the garage door , it was Covid time 2020, the kids came everyone got an individual cupcake in its own box. They hung out outside a bit, I did take a group photo and they were fine with it.
No balloons/ no favors.
However at home I decorated a little bit with just 2/3 helium balloons not for anyone but just us.
I am doing the same tonight.

I already responded and said to only give them food. What’s the actual party going to be? Is it at your house? Are they just getting together to hang out and shoot hoops or play video games? Are you taking them somewhere?

You could do a little “candy bar” with bowls of Skittles, Blow Pops, sour gummies, etc and kids could fill little bags but it kind of depends on your kid. One of my kids loves that, the other would not. Neither would want a balloon backdrop.