bday party etiquette for playgroups

DoIreallyWantToChangeMyName

E's in a playgroup that was formed from my new mom support group. There are 9 babies born within a few weeks of him. I'm starting to plan for his bday party because I need to reserve a room. What's the right thing to do regarding invites? Should I pick and choose the 4 or 5 that we are closer with? Or, should I just invite everyone? In general, do people feel relieved or snubbed to not get an invite to these kinds of things? So this would be like 10 birthday parties in 3 weeks if we all got invited and went to each. And then how does the gift giving part work?

snoopy5512

I haven't encountered this but I know people usually invite the whole group.  And I personally would feel snubbed.

KathrynMD

I would invite everyone and expect to be invited to all the other parties.  You're certainly not obligated to attend, and I wuoldn't expect everyone to attend yours either, but you should invite them. 

daisyterp

Could you just host a birthday playgroup and make it a no gifts/gifts optional (so no gift opening) thing and have it separate from the family/friends b-day party? 

We are in a big parents group and most of the time moms will just host a playgroup to celebrate their LOs birthday and have it be open to everyone in the group. If they so another non-playgroup party w/ non-group members invited they sometimes invite the ppl in the group they are closest too. Does this make sense? 

 

 

jnealet

daisyterp:

Could you just host a birthday playgroup and make it a no gifts/gifts optional (so no gift opening) thing and have it separate from the family/friends b-day party? 

We are in a big parents group and most of the time moms will just host a playgroup to celebrate their LOs birthday and have it be open to everyone in the group. If they so another non-playgroup party w/ non-group members invited they sometimes invite the ppl in the group they are closest too. Does this make sense? 

 

This is what I was thinking too.  Just make it one big party for everyone.

ucgrad

We are/were in the same situation with the "new mom's group". Our group invites everyone or no one to the actual birthday party, with no strings attached. You go to the ones you can make it to. One mom didn't go to anyone's party because she didn't want to dis anyone. But, after everyone's birthday, we hold a group birthday party for all the kids from the group. It has worked out really well for the past couple of years.

ETA: gifts - we don't buy gifts for all the kids for their parties. At the group party, each person brings one gender neutral gift, and we exchange, so everyone goes home with one gift. This year we actually did a gift swap, just wrapping a toy from home.

weezie825

I would also suggest having a seperate playgroup party where you celebrate all the kids birthdays at once.  I would either make it no gifts or do one gift each by drawing names.