Anonymous wrote:Went to a one year old's party at an exclusive country club in Lima, Peru. A hundred guests at least, dressed to the nines, uniformed nannies chased children around while gorgeous adults partied. There were rented amusement park rides, popcorn, cotton candy, sno cone machines, bouncy house of course, and a professional photog to document it all. There was also a cake cutting moment just like a wedding. In fact, it was a lot like an expensive wedding.

Anyone else attended one of these? I was astonished, but had a great time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS age 2 was invited to a birthday party for a daycare buddy. The family had a handful of snacks for the (few dozen) kids & parents, and then off to the side there were two buffet-type tables set up with copious amount of food - but there was a clear plastic cover draped over that table. A clown performed in the backyard and people ate a few chips and goldfish. After a little time went by, the cake came out and we ate it in the blazing sun.

We were then all hustled out of there, because birthday boy's relatives had begun to arrive. As DH and I left, birthday boy's mother was removing the clear plastic from the buffet tables and fussing with the copious amounts of food and drink, preparing them for her second round of guests.

Weird.

I've had this happen as well though not at a little kid's party. At a HS graduation party scheduled to start about 6 pm, the guests were fed nothing for the first hr. Then there were some limited appetizers -- samosas and Indian snack food, which I love, but not everyone ate as we grew up in the middle of no where and many of the grad's school friends had never tasted ethnic food. 8 pm rolled around and then 9 - at which point there was still no dinner service. All of us school friends bailed at that point and hit the fast food joints on the way home. As we were leaving, the dinner buffet was starting to be set out. It was clear that the grad's parents viewed this as a party for their friends and family and the "school friends" were token invites; we were supposed to stop in with presents and then leave so the real party could start. Years later it still leaves a bad taste and I don't understand why the 18 yr old grad even invited her friends if that's how she and her family was going to treat them. If you can rent out a ballroom venue for a high school graduation, you can certainly afford to feed everyone.

Anonymous wrote:I want to speak up for the goat-renter--we were just at the petting zoo in Central Park. The goats were the most fun of all the animals we saw--tons of personality, made us laugh, were very creative in getting food from people (you could buy it for a quarter a handful).

Anonymous wrote:How do you know they were in bed? Did they actually tell you?!

Anonymous wrote:DS age 2 was invited to a birthday party for a daycare buddy. The family had a handful of snacks for the (few dozen) kids & parents, and then off to the side there were two buffet-type tables set up with copious amount of food - but there was a clear plastic cover draped over that table. A clown performed in the backyard and people ate a few chips and goldfish. After a little time went by, the cake came out and we ate it in the blazing sun.

We were then all hustled out of there, because birthday boy's relatives had begun to arrive. As DH and I left, birthday boy's mother was removing the clear plastic from the buffet tables and fussing with the copious amounts of food and drink, preparing them for her second round of guests.

Weird.

Anonymous wrote:I can cite many examples of ginormous Cleveland Park homes (usually paid for or owned by grandparents since the couple with the kid usually worked for politically perfect ngo's or had cutsie "cool jobs" as documentary producers or some such sh*t) where there were "stations" for the 3-4 yo to shuttle through, an elaborate spongy or felt "craft"and a hay maze in the backyard. In 90º weather, they eccentrically had no air conditioning in the house and I had to beg the hostess for a dusty glass of tepid tap water. Then there was there was the party in the Palisades at a 4 story, Martha Stewart perfect mansion complete with 4 flights of tightly winding stairs (which was awesome to navigate with 3 yo) Of course, there were "station activities" on each floor. The crowning moment was when the hostess stood in front of the group bewildered parents that had been sequestered to the back porch. She forced us to all smoosh in together and say: "cheese" for a photo-op with her GIGANTIC Canon 7D that was so unwieldy that as she went to focus the lens she lost her footing and fell face first down into the porch in front us and actually smashed the camera to the floor. I don't generally laugh at such things but, many snickers were stifled while feigning attempts were made to help her get off the ground. She was physically unhurt but her pride and her 3k+ Canon were totaled. If the hostess is reading this now, just know you will NEVER be forgotten.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Birthday party for 1 year old on a Saturday at 1. Pizza, soda, cake, so far good time. Lots of parents and kids that knew each other. 1 year old birthday child's naptime was 2. Mother brought child to room to start naptime routine while father continued party (bringing out more dessert, drinks) as we all tried to leave. Father insisted we all stay "no need to leave just because baby's sleeping" and kept bringing out drinks, Mother joined in when she came back out BUT at the same time insisting everyone be very quiet and only whisper.
So we are trying to whisper our goodbyes, having beverages put in our hands, being chastised simultaneously for being too loud and asked to stay a little longer.

LOL

Anonymous wrote:Birthday party for 1 year old on a Saturday at 1. Pizza, soda, cake, so far good time. Lots of parents and kids that knew each other. 1 year old birthday child's naptime was 2. Mother brought child to room to start naptime routine while father continued party (bringing out more dessert, drinks) as we all tried to leave. Father insisted we all stay "no need to leave just because baby's sleeping" and kept bringing out drinks, Mother joined in when she came back out BUT at the same time insisting everyone be very quiet and only whisper.
So we are trying to whisper our goodbyes, having beverages put in our hands, being chastised simultaneously for being too loud and asked to stay a little longer.