Question about children at showers

nursej519

Ladies,

I have a question about having kids at showers.. I am having two showers, a "family shower" and a "friends shower". The hosts of both are leaving it up to me to decide whether or not to invite kids. I have a lot of nieces and nephews, so I will of course have kids at the "family shower" but... do I only invite my nieces?? There will only be female adults there, so I am not sure.. Also, only a couple of my friends have kids and I would love them to come to that shower, but I am not sure if it would make them feel out of place? (They are approx. age 5 years and 8 months.. two separate families).

I haven't been to a ton of showers so I am not sure how to go about this.

Thanks!

VOR

I personally view showers as adult events.  I don't find it cute when kids are there and want to help open the presents or what have you.  I like going to showers to see friends and have a chance to catch up.  That's really hard to do when kids are there and running around.  they are distracting on many levels.  Having the rare chance to be at an adults event.... love it.

That being said - if you're going to invite kids, I would invite "kids".  I wouldn't differentiate between boys and girls.  Mainly because I wouldn't want to make my friends w/ boys (at least young boys) feel like they have to arrange for childcare while my friends with girls can just bring them along (IF their DHs aren't available, obviously).  

MySallyGirl

All the showers I have been to that included children only included the girls if only adult women are invited.

KonaCoffeeBean

Kids/no kids, I really think it's fine either way. I don't think it's appropriate to just invite girls: I doubt children care, but how unfair for the mothers of little boys who have to miss the shower or arrange child care.

dufferoo

If your nieces are of the age that you think they could enjoy the shower activities like regular guests (sit around, chit-chat, play games), then I would invite them specifically and keep it ladies only. But if you are picturing the kids to all just be running around playing, I probably wouldn't bother inviting them. They can stay home with dad until they are old enough to actually appreciate the party. The only ones I would worry about not inviting would be babies who might be attached to their moms. In those cases, I might just have the hostess handwrite a little note on the bottom of the mom's invite: "Morgan is welcome to come!"