Stay at Home Moms

Do people have "friend" bday parties in their home anymore?

Parker is only going to her second "friend" birthday party, but both of them have been at either indoor gyms or museums.  It got me wondering if people just don't have friend parties in the house anymore.

Also- Parker is only 4 so do you think as she gets older they'll be more parties in the birthday persons house?   Like, now it would be too cramped to have 10 kids plus a parent in the house, but when she's 10 and going alone parents are more likely to host in the house rather than a neutral location?  

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Re: Do people have "friend" bday parties in their home anymore?

  • For us it would definitely be cramped if we had an indoor party with 10 kids plus parents.  I think it might be overall easier to do a party elsewhere, bc depending on where you do it the facility might handle the cleanup for you, which would be a big load off my shoulders personally.
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  • I think it's getting to be more uncommon to have friend birthday parties at home, at least for younger kids.  DD has been to two birthday parties at houses, but most have been at other locations.  Based on my neighbors and friends with older children, they do have more home parties than the younger set.  I know I wouldn't want to host a party at my house with all her friends and their parents - it would be way too crowded. 
    Ms. A  - 2007, Mr. C - 2009
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  • We were invited to one last month and have another one coming up. My nephew has had a few at home.

    Personally, it's too much stress for me. I don't want to clean my house and figure out food. I much prefer the sort of thing were I book an activity for a couple hours, they serve pizza and I just bring the cake. 

  • We have only had 3 of 7 birthdays outside of our home. But we have plenty of space. 
  • I had a mom of an elementary child say that it's always tough to come up with awesome party ideas because kids won't want to go to parties at people's homes and that part of it is the parents trying to one up each other.  Wha wha what?

    I really hope (and think?) that she is in the minority with that line of thought.  My mom had the best at home parties for us. I hope to reduplicate that.   

  • We had DS1's 5th birthday party at our house. He really wanted to have a pirate themed party and with the amount of kids being invited we knew that it would be cheaper to hold it here. It was so much fun although there ended up being a lot more people than we had thought (luckily we had bought everything in bulk so it was fine). 13 kids RSVP'd, 17 kids ended up participating in the party because siblings came along, and 4 babies roamed the house(including my younger one) plus parents. The kids all had a great time and we'll continue to have parties at home as long as we have the space.

     

    Here's a link to a post a made about it if you're looking for ideas. https://loveandwhiteroses.blogspot.com/2012/01/jorges-pirate-party.html

  • Depends. I just don't have the time or the energy to host a bunch of kids at home........too much work on my part. I just want to go, let the kids have fun, and go home without worrying about setup, cleanup, goody bags, etc.

    That being said, I did a spa "mini sleepover" for DD#1's 6th birthday in the fall, and that was ONLY because we had JUST gone to Disney and I didn't want to drop another $500-$600 on a birthday party........ 

    image Mommy to Barbara 11/8/05, Elisabeth 5/13/07, Loukas 12/23/08 and Lazarus 09/25/12
  • All of our parties have been at our house.
  • DD had her first 2 parties at a location where they do all set up/clean up/activities. Her last party was at home because it was going to be smaller, just 5 friends and their parents. Our home is tiny but we have a side enclosed patio that we use as DDs arts and crafts room which is where we held the games/pinata/crafts. It was fun having it at home but the clean up was not.
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  • My BFF just had her DD's 3rd bday party at their house. They have the space for it and an open floor plan, so it worked well. They hired "Tinkerbell" to come for an hour. She read a story, painted faces, and played a couple games with the kids. BFF is also super mom and made all the decorations and even petits fours for the party. DD1 has only had family parties so far, one at the IL's house and one at ours. I'm partial to smaller parties and don't really like places like Chuck E. Cheese. I'd like to keep parties small and host them at home, but DH would rather have them elsewhere. We'll probably do a mix in the future.
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  • We did DS1's first bday at my parents house because they have a ton of room and I was super pregnant with DS2. I'm having their next (1st and 2nd) birthdays at my house. DH and I both prefer to host parties. Maybe when they are a little older we will do something somewhere else. But places like Chuck E Cheese stress me out.
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  • We had Alex's 5th & 6th birthdays at our house.  Tay's 4th was at a hotel with a pool.  Alex's 4th we had at the pumpkin patch.

    Alex has been to 4 parties in the last few months and 1 was at a house.  I am seeing parties afrom 2-4 being a norm to not include a meal as well.

  • We have always had parties at home.  When DD turned 4, I started with drop off parties, only for kids I knew well.  It was super.  We did a treasure hunt and make your own ice cream Sundays (with help from some neighborhood tweens).  The girls all loved it.  We also open presents, and teach graciousness, really out of the realm of normal :-)  When she turned 5, we had a drop off mommy and baby party.  The girls all brought a doll and a stroller, and I gave them all some money, just coins, in a little change purse they got to keep.  With the help of 2 tweens, 9 and 11, from the neighborhood, I took the girls on a shopping trip to the neighbors. There was a wedding store for the wedding ring, a home store for the apron, a baby store, for a baby bottle, and a toy store.  I ask the working neighbors permission to use their porches as the "stores" and we walked as a group to each "store".  I did it mid week during the summer.  They loved it and their parents loved the 2 hours at the coffee shop. 

  • I had a 2 or 3 of Jordan's parties out at places, but the majority of them were friend parties at the house.  I plan to do the same for the boys when they get older.
  • I much prefer home parties, I don't find them any more stressful as long as I cap the guest list at 10.  It does mean we can't invite the whole class and for that, I feel bad, but I love small parties! It allows me a lot more creativity in the planning and the kids seem more relaxed.  We have done bigger parties at jumpy places and those have their place, but I would rather just have it at the house--but we couldn't do any more than ten kids, our house isn't big enough and we can't count on an outside party with Feb. and March birthdays.
  • For DD's first birthday, I will be having it at home. It will be family and a couple friends. In the future, I plan to do all parties at home.
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  • We get about 4 invites to parties a month (it is kind of crazy). Of all these, I think I could count on one hand how many are home parties. We did home parties for thier 1 and 4 birthdays (no parties for 2 or 3 since they really didn't have friends at that point and didn't care). After that I started renting our HOAs clubhouse. It is so nice not to have to worry about the before and after cleaning up, so I can see why people want to go somewhere. Also, our turnout has been high, like 20+ kids since we have to invite the entire class and I don't really want that many kids running around my house.  Bounce houses seem to be the big one. The three invites I have for the next week are all bounce house places.
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  • My SIL does. Her kids have summer birthdays and they rent a bounce house.

    We hav e a lot of land for outdoor parties, but we have winter babies and it would be too cramped to fit in friends/family/friends parents in our 1500 sq ft house.

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  • We always have parties at home.  I like planning them and making everything. Plus, I don't invite 30958 friends, so that helps.  I'm a grinch that way!
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    We've had both of DD's parties at our house & will have her 3rd birthday party here as well. We have a large house & a pool since her birthday is a the end of May people tend to migrate outside.  I can see the appeal of having it somewhere other than at home.  The idea of not having to get the house "company" ready, leaving all the mess behind & not having to clean up all the little things afterward sounds great but at this point she doesn't have enough friends to fill the requirements for most of the party places.
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  • I would love to have all DS's parties at our home, but out current one doesn't accommodate the number of guests we'd have.  We have a great outdoor space but he was born in December so it knocks that idea out.  Hopefully we will be able to do it at our next home.
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  • So far, all of the friend parties we've been invited to have been at alternate locations, not at homes. We have not had any friend parties yet but I'll probably have them at home.
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  • All of our parties have been at our home. I like having it home, find it fun to plan and our home is large enough. 

     https://notwifezilla.blogspot.com/2012/04/parrrrty-day.html

    FWIW, most of our friends have had parties at their homes as well. There have been 3 out at other locations: firehouse because it was combined 3rd b-day and 30th b-day party, bowling alley, & Little Gym.  

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  • We do. But we have a larger open plan house, so having 15 people in the house is not cramped. My girls birthday is also in July (hottest months here in FL) so having an outdoor party at a park, is out of the question. Also we have an inground pool so we usually make it a pool party and everyone has a good time. Last year it rained the whole week of the girls birthday, so it ended up being an inside party because the pool got cold and the grass was so overgrown because it was pouring and could not be cut until the rain stopped. That is the one time I had wished I had found an indoor gym to do a party, but we didnt' know that until it happened. I plan on having the party at home again this year. As they get older if they request to have a party at a location we would probably do it, but for now, it works to have it at home. I love that I don't have to lug a bunch of stuff in and out of my car for the party set up and tear down. I just have to clean my house, buy some balloons, a cake and have plenty of food and drink.
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  • imageregenab:
    I love that I don't have to lug a bunch of stuff in and out of my car for the party set up and tear down. .

    i've never had to lug stuff for set up and tear down. I just show up. Everything is set up by the places we have chosen and cleaned up. The ONLY thing that I lug home is birthday gifts. 

    image Mommy to Barbara 11/8/05, Elisabeth 5/13/07, Loukas 12/23/08 and Lazarus 09/25/12
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