A playground party for 5 y/os where the hosts thought that just the fact of being at a playground would be enough to keep them all engaged and happy for the duration of the party. I'm not saying that they needed professional entertainment, but it would have been nice if they'd organized some group games or provided sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and things like that.

My kid would have been ok with that at 5. What was the issue and how long was the party? Over 2 hours?

Anonymous wrote:So, I had a 9 year old birthday party today... The Evite graphic clearly displayed "Pool Party" and the text said "we'll be celebrating pool-side"... Multiple kids showed up confused that it was a pool party. Parents ran back home to get suits. I didn't explicitly say "bring a swimsuit" but ??? Really? I mean, it must have been my fault, but...

"Pool Party" is universally understood. But the added "pool-side" (which is not the pool) language caused the ambiguity (trying to be fancy with "pool-side"?).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I had a 9 year old birthday party today... The Evite graphic clearly displayed "Pool Party" and the text said "we'll be celebrating pool-side"... Multiple kids showed up confused that it was a pool party. Parents ran back home to get suits. I didn't explicitly say "bring a swimsuit" but ??? Really? I mean, it must have been my fault, but...

Pool-side does not equal pool party to me. It’s next to the pool. Weird wording.

Seriously? It would need to say "we will be celebrating IN THE POOL" for you to grudgingly throw your kid's swimsuit in the bag?

Dp. I'm a third person, in addition to all of your unprepared party guests, who would be confused by this.

My kids have been to several pool parties. The invites don't say we will be celebrating "pool-side," nor do they say "we will be celebrating in the pool."

Usually people write the words "pool party" on the invite, and everyone shows up with swimsuits.

If there's even a whiff of a chance that there will be swimming, why not send the kid with a suit?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I had a 9 year old birthday party today... The Evite graphic clearly displayed "Pool Party" and the text said "we'll be celebrating pool-side"... Multiple kids showed up confused that it was a pool party. Parents ran back home to get suits. I didn't explicitly say "bring a swimsuit" but ??? Really? I mean, it must have been my fault, but...

Now I'm confused. Was it a pool party? Because if you wrote "pool side", a parent might think "oh this mom is weird, she wants to have a party next to the pool but not in it??"

Omg, this is so literal. Obviously the food and whatnot will be served poolside. Did none of you grow up with pools?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I had a 9 year old birthday party today... The Evite graphic clearly displayed "Pool Party" and the text said "we'll be celebrating pool-side"... Multiple kids showed up confused that it was a pool party. Parents ran back home to get suits. I didn't explicitly say "bring a swimsuit" but ??? Really? I mean, it must have been my fault, but...

Pool-side does not equal pool party to me. It’s next to the pool. Weird wording.

Seriously? It would need to say "we will be celebrating IN THE POOL" for you to grudgingly throw your kid's swimsuit in the bag?

Dp. I'm a third person, in addition to all of your unprepared party guests, who would be confused by this.

My kids have been to several pool parties. The invites don't say we will be celebrating "pool-side," nor do they say "we will be celebrating in the pool."

Usually people write the words "pool party" on the invite, and everyone shows up with swimsuits.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I had a 9 year old birthday party today... The Evite graphic clearly displayed "Pool Party" and the text said "we'll be celebrating pool-side"... Multiple kids showed up confused that it was a pool party. Parents ran back home to get suits. I didn't explicitly say "bring a swimsuit" but ??? Really? I mean, it must have been my fault, but...

Pool-side does not equal pool party to me. It’s next to the pool. Weird wording.

Seriously? It would need to say "we will be celebrating IN THE POOL" for you to grudgingly throw your kid's swimsuit in the bag?

I remember two unseasonably cold and windy outdoor parties. Shivering the entire time sucks. People need to either reschedule or have a back up plan.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid attended a fifth birthday party. It was held in a very large all purpose room at an apartment complex. The room was filled with round 8 person tables and chairs. Arrival time was 6pm and the invite said dinner and cake. When we arrived the room was filled with about 200 adults sitting and standing around. Probably about 50 kids sitting in the corner on the floor. Kids were all ages, about 10 or so were from the preschool class. Looked like parents literally invited everyone they knew.

After 45 minutes a balloon animal lady showed up and lined all the kids up and made balloon animals while the kids stood in line. After another hour, a lady showed up with a puppet and put on a one woman/one puppet show in the corner where she nonsensically sang and jumped around. After that, a small cake was brought out (like an 8 piece cake) to the “family” table and the birthday girl ran over, blew out the candles, then the family served themselves the cake while the other 240 guests watched them eat.

No other food, no drinks at all. Parents just sat at the family table and did not greet anyone.

These stories are wild. How can ANYONE think that is ok?

PP, why did you stay?

It was my poor husband. I was home with our toddler. He kept texting me “omg! What do I do???” He was standing in a corner with the other parents from the preschool and he didn’t want to look like a jerk dragging our kid out. I also think he was a bit fascinated by what might happen next. He videoed the dancing puppet lady and I wish you guys could see the video because it was is insane. She was dressed like a storybook Gypsy with heavy makeup and she spun around screech singing like she was possessed while waving her puppet covered hand around.

The no food after being told there would be dinner and the cake thing made me steer clear of those ppl for the rest of the year. I can forgive boring and bad entertainment, but the cake thing was just so so bad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid attended a fifth birthday party. It was held in a very large all purpose room at an apartment complex. The room was filled with round 8 person tables and chairs. Arrival time was 6pm and the invite said dinner and cake. When we arrived the room was filled with about 200 adults sitting and standing around. Probably about 50 kids sitting in the corner on the floor. Kids were all ages, about 10 or so were from the preschool class. Looked like parents literally invited everyone they knew.

After 45 minutes a balloon animal lady showed up and lined all the kids up and made balloon animals while the kids stood in line. After another hour, a lady showed up with a puppet and put on a one woman/one puppet show in the corner where she nonsensically sang and jumped around. After that, a small cake was brought out (like an 8 piece cake) to the “family” table and the birthday girl ran over, blew out the candles, then the family served themselves the cake while the other 240 guests watched them eat.

No other food, no drinks at all. Parents just sat at the family table and did not greet anyone.

These stories are wild. How can ANYONE think that is ok?

PP, why did you stay?

Anonymous wrote:My kid attended a fifth birthday party. It was held in a very large all purpose room at an apartment complex. The room was filled with round 8 person tables and chairs. Arrival time was 6pm and the invite said dinner and cake. When we arrived the room was filled with about 200 adults sitting and standing around. Probably about 50 kids sitting in the corner on the floor. Kids were all ages, about 10 or so were from the preschool class. Looked like parents literally invited everyone they knew.

After 45 minutes a balloon animal lady showed up and lined all the kids up and made balloon animals while the kids stood in line. After another hour, a lady showed up with a puppet and put on a one woman/one puppet show in the corner where she nonsensically sang and jumped around. After that, a small cake was brought out (like an 8 piece cake) to the “family” table and the birthday girl ran over, blew out the candles, then the family served themselves the cake while the other 240 guests watched them eat.

No other food, no drinks at all. Parents just sat at the family table and did not greet anyone.

These stories are wild. How can ANYONE think that is ok?

Any party is terrible where they don’t have enough of something for all the kids. I have 3 kids and I can count at least a half dozen times where the parents clearly didn’t calculate how many people they invited correctly and didn’t have enough food, cake or cupcakes, drinks etc…I just don’t get how these hosts are not embarrassed.

My kid attended a fifth birthday party. It was held in a very large all purpose room at an apartment complex. The room was filled with round 8 person tables and chairs. Arrival time was 6pm and the invite said dinner and cake. When we arrived the room was filled with about 200 adults sitting and standing around. Probably about 50 kids sitting in the corner on the floor. Kids were all ages, about 10 or so were from the preschool class. Looked like parents literally invited everyone they knew.

After 45 minutes a balloon animal lady showed up and lined all the kids up and made balloon animals while the kids stood in line. After another hour, a lady showed up with a puppet and put on a one woman/one puppet show in the corner where she nonsensically sang and jumped around. After that, a small cake was brought out (like an 8 piece cake) to the “family” table and the birthday girl ran over, blew out the candles, then the family served themselves the cake while the other 240 guests watched them eat.

No other food, no drinks at all. Parents just sat at the family table and did not greet anyone.

Anonymous wrote:
As a guest, my boyfriend (who knew multiple people there, as it was outrageous friend group) decided it was a good time to let me know that "things weren't working out" and "it was him, not me." I started crying in front of everybody. I stood up very awkwardly, bumped into the table which shook the wall, and a piece of the dropped ceiling fell on my head as he was leaving, but he didn't stop. I vomited and (although I think nobody else picked up on this, god I hope not) shat myself a little bit.

This was a midwestern Pizza Hut in the 1980s, and I can still remember the exact pattern of the linoleum in the bathroom, as I hid in there forever afterward.

This is extraordinarily bad on every level. Were you actually sick or overwhelmed with emotion? The vomiting and shitting are crazy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Worst memories: inch-thick green fondant on homemade cake, no water to drink, shoes off house (with no warning), not opening gifts.

nobody opens gifts at birthday parties anymore. Haven’t seen that since the 90s.

It's weird, we moved a couple years from a "no opening gifts" community 10 miles away to a "everyone opens gifts at the party" community. The first community was also more venue parties as opposed to at home parties. Both communities were wealthy, people have large homes, etc., I have no idea why there was a difference!

^^sorry, "a shared friend group"

It was outrageous that night, though.