Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is our first friends (non family) birthday for our 4 year old boy. At a place that charges per child, we invited 12 friends from preschool, 7 of them are bringing an older sibling. This is almost doubling our cost, is this normal? Why are so many parents asking to bring siblings? If it’s at a home no big deal but outside it’s quite an extra cost and I don’t have the heart to say no. This is all new to me.

I always think that people who say this have never been in the position of entertaining 12 four year olds in their home. This seems like a much bigger deal than extra kids at an open play space, particularly if parents cover the entrance fee.

I would much rather pay $25 for a sibling at a play place than add an extra 2yo at my house.

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of well off families in this area who don’t understand that for some of us, hosting a birthday party is something we have to budget and save for and 10 extra kids is a lot of money to us. They just assume it’s no biggie to add their other kids to the party.

So yes, you have to write please no siblings on invitations at this point. I don’t ever bring siblings to parties but I know plenty who do.

Exactly. We ended up not having a party one year in preschool just to avoid the whole sibling drama.

Anonymous wrote:This is our first friends (non family) birthday for our 4 year old boy. At a place that charges per child, we invited 12 friends from preschool, 7 of them are bringing an older sibling. This is almost doubling our cost, is this normal? Why are so many parents asking to bring siblings? If it’s at a home no big deal but outside it’s quite an extra cost and I don’t have the heart to say no. This is all new to me.

I always think that people who say this have never been in the position of entertaining 12 four year olds in their home. This seems like a much bigger deal than extra kids at an open play space, particularly if parents cover the entrance fee.

There are a lot of well off families in this area who don’t understand that for some of us, hosting a birthday party is something we have to budget and save for and 10 extra kids is a lot of money to us. They just assume it’s no biggie to add their other kids to the party.

So yes, you have to write please no siblings on invitations at this point. I don’t ever bring siblings to parties but I know plenty who do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because no one wants to hassle with finding and paying $$$ for a babysitter for the other sibling so they can go sit a jungle joes with a bunch of 4 yr olds and parents they don’t know. It is cheaper and easier to bring the other child and pay their entrance fee.

Isn't there another parent?

What does this add? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe there are multiple siblings and the other parent is attending the older kids' sporting events. Maybe the other parent works on weekends. Maybe one parent takes care his or her own ailing parents on the weekends.

For a lot of families, the other parent is may not be available, is on call, is out of town...many reasons.

There is one family in our circles who always brings siblings to parties. The siblings sometimes even bring friends. I’m almost certain that family is paying for their other children. On the evite, they only rsvp for one child.

My preschool kid once went to Chuck E. Cheese for a party. Instead of asking, I told my elementary child that he is not part of the party. Even if they invite him, don’t join. I invited his friend to come too and they got their own table. Of course the host said he could join and I said no, he is here with another friend.

There were a few times during the preschool years when I did ask if I could bring a sibling. DH was either on call or deployed. Host always said yes. If host said no, that would totally have been fine. We just wouldn’t have gone.

In preschool, I accommodated siblings. We were new to the area. I had kids 2 years apart so my other child would have liked to go.
We wanted to hang out with the entire family back then and get to know them.

In elementary, siblings are not welcome as parties become drop off.

It’s too late, OP. You already said yes. I have said to people that we will let them know if we have space after everyone RSVPs. So if a party is for 15 and I invite 15 and 4 can’t come, I will let 4 siblings come.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because no one wants to hassle with finding and paying $$$ for a babysitter for the other sibling so they can go sit a jungle joes with a bunch of 4 yr olds and parents they don’t know. It is cheaper and easier to bring the other child and pay their entrance fee.

Isn't there another parent?

What does this add? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe there are multiple siblings and the other parent is attending the older kids' sporting events. Maybe the other parent works on weekends. Maybe one parent takes care his or her own ailing parents on the weekends.

For a lot of families, the other parent is may not be available, is on call, is out of town...many reasons.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because no one wants to hassle with finding and paying $$$ for a babysitter for the other sibling so they can go sit a jungle joes with a bunch of 4 yr olds and parents they don’t know. It is cheaper and easier to bring the other child and pay their entrance fee.

Isn't there another parent?

What does this add? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe there are multiple siblings and the other parent is attending the older kids' sporting events. Maybe the other parent works on weekends. Maybe one parent takes care his or her own ailing parents on the weekends.

They ask : You say NO

If you don't have the guts to do that,
it's your fault

Anonymous wrote:Yeah if it doesn’t say “no siblings” I assume siblings can come. Personally if there is going to be an extra expense I don’t want the host to have to pay for the sibling, but every time I have gone pay for them, the host steps in and says no, they will cover the cost.

I'm the opposite. I assume it's only to the invited kid unless its specifically says 'siblings welcome'

So this issue dissipates when the cohort gets old enough to drop off at the birthday party. Obviously no one is leaving their four year old nor is anyone going to arrange child care for the other siblings ... so there you go.

Anonymous wrote:"Due to space restraints we are unable to accommodate siblings."

+1

Anonymous wrote:Because no one wants to hassle with finding and paying $$$ for a babysitter for the other sibling so they can go sit a jungle joes with a bunch of 4 yr olds and parents they don’t know. It is cheaper and easier to bring the other child and pay their entrance fee.

Isn't there another parent?

Because no one wants to hassle with finding and paying $$$ for a babysitter for the other sibling so they can go sit a jungle joes with a bunch of 4 yr olds and parents they don’t know. It is cheaper and easier to bring the other child and pay their entrance fee.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah if it doesn’t say “no siblings” I assume siblings can come. Personally if there is going to be an extra expense I don’t want the host to have to pay for the sibling, but every time I have gone pay for them, the host steps in and says no, they will cover the cost.

Really? You are rude then.