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Thursday, September 15, 2011

Kids: To Invite or Not To Invite

Kid is turning five.

Five?

Five.

Wow.

I have a question for the Moms (and Dads) out there. How old were your kids when they started inviting a bunch of friends to their birthday parties?

Up until now Kid's birthdays have basically been family get togethers. But now he's in school.

Although, to be honest, he goes to a private school that only added Kindergarten this year (and at the last minute) so his class is very small and there is only one other boy besides Kid.

Then there's church. Girls there too. Poor Kid is surrounded by girls.

So, do we invite his one boy friend from school and the two girls from church (and OK maybe the little neighbor boy) or do we just do a family thing again?

I have to be honest that my hesitancy about inviting so many is because A. Our house is SMALL (and family is already coming) and B. A bunch of new kids means they're going to bring their parents (I would imagine) and my social anxiety may not be able to deal with such things. Haha.

I really don't know what to do. Maybe we should just stick with the family and the cousins.

OK, and MAYBE his best friend from school.

Sigh. Decision making is NOT my thing.

3 comments:

Call Me Cate said...

Maybe a compromise and let him invite one friend of his choosing? I had a McDonald's birthday party in kindergarten, separate from the family gathering. There were probably about 6 kids. Our house wasn't big either but I don't think any of the parents stayed (different times). We started at my house, went to McDonald's to eat/play/cake, then came home to play a couple of games out in the yard.

C. Beth said...

I think you do whatever seems best for you guys. I get worried about whether I'm inviting the "right" people too (especially if Chickie's been invited to that person's party but that person's party was bigger than Chickie's party...etc.) I've come to the conclusion that I need to just do what's best for us and also try not to take it personally when my kids aren't invited!! (For instance, we have a friend who's kids have been invited to Chickie's parties, but when their son has parties they do small neighborhood things, so we aren't invited.... That's okay.)

We've always done "friend parties" since we don't have family in town but we've done them as small as 2 families plus ours and as big as 10 families or so plus ours.

Kendra said...

I'm with you. I am hesitant about having a birthday party for Leo when he turns 5 because he doesn't really have a lot of "real" friends and I feel when we invite some random people it feels like we are asking for gifts. Which I hate. Since he's in school it makes sense to invite his real friends but the small house and social anxiety I understand too. Sorry I'm no help! Good luck!