Anonymous wrote:Library party

Activities:

Library scavenger hunt (find a book about someone from another country, etc.)
Guess the book
See who can balance the most books on their head

Hmmm…this my actually be a worse idea than the karate party!

Early all of these suggestions reinforce heteronormative stereotypes.

Anonymous wrote:Library party

Activities:

Library scavenger hunt (find a book about someone from another country, etc.)
Guess the book
See who can balance the most books on their head

No librarian would say it's okay to have a birthday party at the library. Nobody wants 10 girls rushing around screeching and grabbing at books, possibly damaging them, bumping into patrons, and books are meant to be read, not balanced on your head only to be dropped on the floor. This is not respectful to the library, the library patrons, or the books.

Anonymous wrote:Library party

Activities:

Library scavenger hunt (find a book about someone from another country, etc.)
Guess the book
See who can balance the most books on their head

Have you met a 12 year old before?

I don't understand why you can't have them over to your house for the sleepover. They're 12, not 6. They don't require you to be chasing around after them all night long. They require you to order the pizza, tell them when to go to bed, and make them pancakes/order donuts in the morning. And you can do all this from the comfort of your own home. That sounds a lot easier to me if I was recovering from surgery than having to schlep all over town.

Library party

Activities:

Library scavenger hunt (find a book about someone from another country, etc.)
Guess the book
See who can balance the most books on their head

Mall Scavenger Hunt! I wanted to do this for my daughter’s birthday but she choose something else. Might be hard with 12, but bring them to mall and make up a list of things they need to do or take a picture of. Give them some cash for small purchases that are part of the hunt (“get a small Lego figure at the Lego store”, every buy a piece of candy at ABC candy”). I actually used ChatGPT to name my local mall and draft the scavenger hunt as a starting point.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP take a few girls to dinner and call it a day

You suck as a parent
Who does this?

Yes a parent must be at the party if you do a space out besides a restaurant
So what a bunch of kids can not come what are you going to do keep moving the date?

You kid is ridiculous

I think you've misunderstood...it's not that a bunch of kids have a conflict. I think OP means that if they do something expensive like the Kendra Scott color bar, then OP's DD will only be allowed to invite a small number of kids (because of cost per person). And I guess the DD wants something where she can invite more kids. That's a reasonable preference, but at this point the DD really does need to come up with something herself.

My 12 year old likes the parties that are just going to a fun restaurant or dessert place, hanging out, small slumber party, etc....

Exactly, we have a budget of $500-600, which could include 12 kids at an escape room-type party, but only a handful at Kendra Scott or the places that charge $100/head + the cost of food somewhere else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She could have a Karate birthday; did you even consider that? Girls can do marshal arts too you know.

My God no. No 12 year old girl wants a karate bday! lol.

OP here.. Couldn't agree more. My almost 12 yo and her teenage sister aren't into ANYTHING boy-ish. It's all about the makeup, clothes, jewelry, etc. My husband and I definitely will be present at the party; however, that's extremely different than being in the actual escape room with a bunch of screaming tweens.

Anonymous wrote:OP take a few girls to dinner and call it a day

You suck as a parent
Who does this?

Yes a parent must be at the party if you do a space out besides a restaurant
So what a bunch of kids can not come what are you going to do keep moving the date?

You kid is ridiculous

I think you've misunderstood...it's not that a bunch of kids have a conflict. I think OP means that if they do something expensive like the Kendra Scott color bar, then OP's DD will only be allowed to invite a small number of kids (because of cost per person). And I guess the DD wants something where she can invite more kids. That's a reasonable preference, but at this point the DD really does need to come up with something herself.

My 12 year old likes the parties that are just going to a fun restaurant or dessert place, hanging out, small slumber party, etc....

Escape Room when we've done it a parent would be there sitting outside, but the kids go in themselves to solve the puzzle. So you'd basically be saying hi to the parents dropping off, then sitting there for the majority of the time, and then maybe you could go someplace really close for pizza (or go to one in the burbs that has an eating option next door?) and serve cupcakes and have the girls get picked up and then done. My girls both had this party for 12 year bdays and it was great, and very minimal for me to actually have to do.

My 12 year old has been to 3 parties recently. All 3 were at the kids houses.

At one they did a spa day with face masks etc and they made their own scent of lip balm.

At one, they had a pool party and they just played party games and they put on a lip sync air band show

At one they decorated a plant pot and planted a plant and they then listened to music and some danced and some lay on the bed / floor.

Oh she also did a mall thing for a friends birthday where the friend just invited her and one other kid and they spent 2-3 hours in the mall and the mom gave them each a $25 gift certificate to the mall to spend. They ate at the food court.

She mostly just likes hanging out with her friends without any adults being too close. She doesn't really care what they do at parties.

OP take a few girls to dinner and call it a day

You suck as a parent
Who does this?

Yes a parent must be at the party if you do a space out besides a restaurant
So what a bunch of kids can not come what are you going to do keep moving the date?

You kid is ridiculous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She could have a Karate birthday; did you even consider that? Girls can do marshal arts too you know.

My God no. No 12 year old girl wants a karate bday! lol.

Mine would have enjoyed that, but she was a very athletic tomboy back then. I agree in general the typical 12yo girl will be like wtf.

Anonymous wrote:She could have a Karate birthday; did you even consider that? Girls can do marshal arts too you know.

"Oy, youse gots a loisense for that?"
"Show us your badges!"