Anonymous wrote:No, I’m in awe of the people who are organized enough to have home parties. Some of the birthday parties my daughter has enjoyed the most involved running around in people’s backyards with squirt guns, or similar simple activities.

Anonymous wrote:My 10yo DD is at private school and we have always done parties at home. Many of her friends also did parties at home. Here’s some advice/observations. Put your nostalgia aside. Free range parties may have worked in the past but kids and expectations have changed. You need to include some activity. This does not need to be lavish or expensive. It provides some focus and then they can do unstructured stuff the rest of the time if that’s what you want. My DD said the one unstructured party she sent to was boring and the girls broke up into little groups, like at school. Consider whether you want parents staying and whether siblings are also invited. Take the weather into account. If you assume that everybody will be outside, make sure you have a plan B for indoors. Will boys or girls be attending? There came a point when my DS turned 11 that we realized the boy energy levels just didn’t work for at-home parties. A few times we hired a soccer coach to do some drills and a game in our local park and that worked well. My DD and her friends loved crafts and were much easier to manage. At-home parties are a lot more work and the costs can really add up.