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Kid Parties: Gift or No Gift?

Poll Poll Gift or No Gift

  • I always have my DD/DS bring a gift for the Birthday Child.

    Votes: 66 97.1%

  • I sometimes have my DD/DS bring a gift for the Birthday child.

    Votes: 2 2.9%

  • I never have my DD/DS bring a gift. Her/His presence is present enough!

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    68
Yes, that's true...I guess finances could play a part in some situations. That is not the case here, but I can see that. :lol:

To answer the question above, I am a "drop off" parent. I cannot imagine staying at a kid party just to stay. If the parents invited me or needed help I would, of course, but not just to watch my kid. I wouldn't want parents to stay, either. I don't want to entertain parents. :hides:
 
dragonfly I SOOOO with you!!! There is usually one or two parents who always stay for my kids' parties and want to chat the whole time..............drives me INSANE!!! :gah:
 
lisamc said:
Dragonfly:

What if the party was somewhere like Chuck E. Cheese for a 5 yr. old?
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I don't think most parents expect you to be comfortable dropping off a 5 yo with people they don't know at a party.

It seems to me in K and first grade the parties were smaller....for my DS I invited 5-8 (don't remember) of his good friends that we had playdates with and their moms (That always came to the playdates) were invited too.

I wouldn't have dropped off my 5 yo anywhere with a parent I didn't know WELL. By second grade my son and his bff were dropped off at each other's homes....but his mom and I were bffs too and I totally knew she would take care of mine as I would hers.
 
lisamc said:
Dragonfly:

What if the party was somewhere like Chuck E. Cheese for a 5 yr. old?
Click to expand...



MORE: IF my 5 yo was invited to a Chuck E Cheese party and I went in with him and realized adults weren't there/invited. I would VERY likely choose a booth away from the party and have salad bar or something. Be in the building...but not intruding on the party. (maybe have a friend on standby to join you so it isn't weird) LOL
 
5yo's at Chuck E. Cheese....we'd probably be "busy" that day. A) I wouldn't be comfortable with that because it's just too much for a large group of 5yo's & B) I have NO DESIRE to sit at Chuck E. Cheese for 2 minutes, let alone 2 hours. :lol: I'd feel no guilt about my kid not going, either. At 5, they'd forget about the invite pretty quick. :p

But like Barb said, it seems like parties were smaller when the kids were little. I haven't had a kid go to a "big bash" party in a long time, and really only for the bar/bat mitzvahs.

ETA- I'll have to stay, unfortunately, at any parties new DD8 is invited too. She is too impulsive and says too many inappropriate things when she thinks adults aren't watching. :gah:
 
mrsmom said:
dragonfly I SOOOO with you!!! There is usually one or two parents who always stay for my kids' parties and want to chat the whole time..............drives me INSANE!!! :gah:
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This always happens to me too! The last party for DS8 we were having 16 boys, in our house. Me, DH and older kids were going to run a bunch of games like a treasure hunt etc. Pretty busy couple of hours. She followed me from room to room the whole time, not just lite chit chat either! Heavy subjects about sick parents etc. I mean, not to sound rude but I thought that was so irritating. I ended up leaving DH with kids alone several times because I couldn't break away. She also wanted a full tour of the house, every nook and cranny. I would say it was just her but that kind of thing has happened to me before with different Mom's. I just do not get it!
 
Okay, so my daughter (Kindgergarten, age 5) has been to 3 birthday parties in the last 4 weeks, and is going to another one in 2 weeks. The first one was a dear friend of mine, and had it at a jump place. The kids she invited were all kids from our social circle, so all the parents stayed, in fact, most of the dads were there too, so it was a great time for us to get together as well.

The next one was at a classmates house. Never met the mom before. Everyone except myself and my neighbor just dropped their kid off and ran. It was all of the girls from her class, so once we saw the girls were comfortable, we went and got lunch. And, yes it did look like we would be in the way, as the mom and grandma looked like they had everything under control.

Yesterday, the party was at Chuck E. Cheese. While not a fan, DD has been bugging me to go, and while we took the boys when they were little quite often, she has never been. So, I thought it was a good opportunity. I had already planned on staying. But, out of 15 Kindergarten classmate guests, only 3 parents chose to stay. The rest dropped off. And, it was interested, as the party girl's mom was like "Oh, so this is little Tommy. Nice to meet you. Mom, you can pick up at 3:00." Yeah, I know they have the whole check your hand security system, but no thank you. There are 20 kids in the class, so almost the entire class showed. That's a bit much to expect one set of parents to handle.

There were several classmates that I know quite well through volunteering and other interactions with the parents. So many of them were coming to me, can you do this, can you do that. One was stuck in a seat belt on one of the rides and couldn't get out, just as an example. Have no idea where the party mom was at the time.

Two things came to mind:

1) I don't even let my child go into a public restroom alone at this age.

2) I carried my wallet with me the whole time, not wanting to set it down, afraid it would get stolen. So, why on Earth would I leave my child here unattended.

But, even at the first party, parents were just meeting for the first time. I never allowed my older kids to have playdates until I've met the kids a few times, and now it seems the norm. Am I being too cautious?
 
mommysix said:
This always happens to me too! The last party for DS8 we were having 16 boys, in our house. Me, DH and older kids were going to run a bunch of games like a treasure hunt etc. Pretty busy couple of hours. She followed me from room to room the whole time, not just lite chit chat either! Heavy subjects about sick parents etc. I mean, not to sound rude but I thought that was so irritating. I ended up leaving DH with kids alone several times because I couldn't break away. She also wanted a full tour of the house, every nook and cranny. I would say it was just her but that kind of thing has happened to me before with different Mom's. I just do not get it!
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At 8, and at a house, that's a whole different story.
 
I'm the lone soul here I guess. Depending on the kid (best friends, etc.), we'll get a gift, otherwise, not. If we don't really know the kid, we'll do a fly by & bring some food or drink & get out asap.

The easiest way I solve the gift issue is by just not going so then nobody gets their feelings hurt least of all the kid who probably never even knew we were there.
 
lucyrevenge said:
I'm the lone soul here I guess. Depending on the kid (best friends, etc.), we'll get a gift, otherwise, not. If we don't really know the kid, we'll do a fly by & bring some food or drink & get out asap.
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Wait, so if your kid was invited to a party for some other kid in his/ her class, you would send them without a gift? I've never heard of a kid bringing food a drink to a kid party. :dunce:
 
mrsmom said:
Wait, so if your kid was invited to a party for some other kid in his/ her class, you would send them without a gift? I've never heard of a kid bringing food a drink to a kid party. :dunce:
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Heh... I don't send my kids to other kids parties. I go with them. I usually call to RSVP if we're going & ask what can I bring. If my kids are buddy buddy with the kids, we bring something. If its just a hey everyone in the class got invited party we may not.

So...now you know. Don't invite my kids. You won't get **** from me. :lol:
 
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