I had a birthday party at the zoo! We did blankets, cupcakes, popcorn and picnic foods. I had fond memories of it. It was not official through the zoo.

Anonymous wrote:I would be very annoyed if my kid got invited to a free zoo party and I had to attend for hours and pay $30 to park.

Replying no is an option

There are other parking options as well as metro. Sounds like you're being cheap and self centered complaining about parking. Remember the party is about the birthday kid. Not about you or your child!

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks to everyone for your replies on this and the food for thought. My DD's 7th birthday is later next month so I need to pull the trigger soon. Good point about parking. We will outline options (I used to live next to the zoo, so have some suggestions about good streets for spots.) We also all live and attend school fairly near the zoo (within a mile), so I think it won't be as big a convenience as for some coming further away. We had planned to say "no gifts"--and good point about that being a logistics issue. You're right in that it has to be plotted out as to where we're going in the zoo for any latecomers and where exactly we are eating/how we're getting food in/timing. Thank you!

How could you read these comments and still consider this a non horrible idea lol?

OP here. Thanks to everyone for your replies on this and the food for thought. My DD's 7th birthday is later next month so I need to pull the trigger soon. Good point about parking. We will outline options (I used to live next to the zoo, so have some suggestions about good streets for spots.) We also all live and attend school fairly near the zoo (within a mile), so I think it won't be as big a convenience as for some coming further away. We had planned to say "no gifts"--and good point about that being a logistics issue. You're right in that it has to be plotted out as to where we're going in the zoo for any latecomers and where exactly we are eating/how we're getting food in/timing. Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be very annoyed if my kid got invited to a free zoo party and I had to attend for hours and pay $30 to park.

Yep. This happened to us, and I was annoyed.

Instead of being annoyed why didn’t you just RSVP no?

I am assuming that my child is friends with the birthday child and wants to celebrate with their friend. Birthday parties are something that many kids look forward to. It would suck to tell my child that they cannot go to their friends party because it was inconvenient to me and it would cost me whatever it was to park.

My annoyance is with the parent who set up a party that is more inconvenient then a normal birthday party. I don't want to punish the birthday kid or my kid because the parent didn't think about the cost and travel time for other parents.

I live in the burbs so it would be more likely that a parent would set up a party at a local zoo, It probably would be a hard no if it was at the National Zoo and the parent wasn't driving the kids as a party.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be very annoyed if my kid got invited to a free zoo party and I had to attend for hours and pay $30 to park.

Yep. This happened to us, and I was annoyed.

Instead of being annoyed why didn’t you just RSVP no?

Why would I punish my kid or the birthday kid for cheap parents?

Yeah this sounds gross

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be very annoyed if my kid got invited to a free zoo party and I had to attend for hours and pay $30 to park.

Yep. This happened to us, and I was annoyed.

Instead of being annoyed why didn’t you just RSVP no?

Why would I punish my kid or the birthday kid for cheap parents?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be very annoyed if my kid got invited to a free zoo party and I had to attend for hours and pay $30 to park.

Yep. This happened to us, and I was annoyed.

Instead of being annoyed why didn’t you just RSVP no?

Anonymous wrote:I would be very annoyed if my kid got invited to a free zoo party and I had to attend for hours and pay $30 to park.

Yep. This happened to us, and I was annoyed.