Thread: Dilemma - kid friendly party or not?

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Is it wrong to want to continue our tradition of "adults only" so that we can all blow off some steam and enjoy some adult beverages for one night?

Most of our friends (and us) have very small children, so it could be an issue to find sitters. So, we should probably extend the invitation to include the kids, but kids = early departure and inhibited parents.

In a few years, when all our kids are a little older, I'm completely down with having a party for them where we can leave them in one room watching movies and such. Right now, we would have about 10-12 kids under the age of 3 in the group!

How have you guys handled parties when very young kids were involved?

I have, but not kids that young-- I think the youngest I had was 3. What I did once was had a "kids room" with games and crafts and a non-scary halloween movie playing. We were watching a scary movie in the other room. It worked out because I had a few adults/teens who did not like horror films so they stayed with the kids. Depending on how much space you have you could make a room or a floor (like the basement) be a kids area, and you could get a few people willing to be babysitters or maybe hire some teens for the job.

This is the one party a year we do not allow children. I agree the parents would be inhibited & usually leave early or the party is extremely low key (we had a New Years Party like that once). My son's b-day is the day before Halloween so we usually have a party for him & his friends (whose parents are ours) so the kiddos get some Halloween fun in. That being said, I worry about everyone getting sitters for their kiddos for the adult party. The earlier you set the date the better, so they have plenty of time to plan for it. I am sending out "save the date magnets" this week for that reason (along with making sure they have a costume). Good luck & keep us posted!

I see nothing wrong with an adult-only party. It's one night a year; surely they can get a sitter with this much advance notice.

Originally Posted by Madame Leota

I see nothing wrong with an adult-only party. It's one night a year; surely they can get a sitter with this much advance notice.

I agree. It's not like you're springing it on them the day before.

In the past, we looked at hiring a sitter for the night and even arranging for it to be at a local "kids play" type place that a friend owns. It just never worked out.

I agree that lead time should give people a chance to plan, but reality is reality. People won't plan for it, and will either not show up or ask to show up with their kid.

Will see how it goes!

we have two parties. adults only on the 30th, then kids party and trick or treating on the 31st works out well that way.

Wow, that's a lot of really young kids. I don't see a problem with having an adults only party, especially if there will be a dozen infants- no offense to those with small children-
But at the same time if you think not allowing kids to come along will hurt your turnout and babysitters will be difficult to find there's no reason you can't have kids.
I think it depends on which type of party you are aiming for.

Yeah, we want a night of debauchery!

See if you can get two or three sitters who would agree to watch all of the children in a central location (maybe one of your guest's homes). Then you can add to your invitations that you have sitters lined up. If you aren't willing to front all of the money for the sitters, maybe add a note at the bottom on how much it is per child per hour to use your sitter.