Spinoff of playdate post -- what about a birthday party?

[pampamz]

DS is invited to a birthday bowling party of a classmate. I've met the grandmother at school in passing but never the parents. Do DH and I drop him off and leave him or stay at the bowling alley?

TIA!

[ctmom]

I would probably stick around. How old is your ds? We are having my dd's 6th b-day party this weekend at build-a-bear and out of the 11 families who are coming, I think at least 6 or 7 will stay in the store and the others will stick around the mall and meet us for pizza after we are finished at build-a-bear. I'm very good friends with the ones who are dropping off at the store and going shopping, so I encouraged them to shop! At the parties my older has been attending for the past year or so, probably 2/3 of the parents stay. For my younger dd, who just turned 3, parents always stay at parties.

hth!

Mary
dd#1 2/01
dd#2 12/03

[pampamz]

DS is 4. I don't feel that great about leaving him, but on the other hand was not sure what "party ettiquette" was in this situation.

This is his first non-family or family friend party. I know he loves playing with the birthday boy at school but other than that I don't know the family.

Thanks!

[SnuggleBuggles]

I don't plan on dropping ds at a birthday party till he is at least 5-6 but probably later. Like when he tells me, "go away, mom!" :) No one has dropped off kids under that age, regardless of where the party was, in my social circle.

I would rent a lane and bowl. :) Or just hang out and watch the kids play/ mingle with the other parents.


Beth

[Andrea S]

I had Andrew's 4th birthday party at a bowling alley and all of the parents stayed. I had a couple extra people just in case anyone wanted to leave. A lot of the parents wanted to watch their kids bowl. It was a lot of fun. I have noticed some of the parents dropping their kids off at parties, but I have not. Even if I wanted to Andrew would not let me :)

Andrea
mom to Andrew 8/02
& Benjamin 3/06

[Piglet]

For 4th year parties in DS1's class, parents typically stayed around. By 5th birthdays, it was VERY rare to see parents at parties, but we have such a small class and such a close-knit group of parents, that I have never had problems with it. If the class were bigger and I didn't know the parents very well, I would probably stick around for as long as it took to feel comfortable (both for myself and for DS), even if that meant sticking around the entire time.