Birthday parties-holy behavior batman!

Just had my boys 8th birthday party today(luckily I have two weeks left to prevent them turning eight ). Holy heck. There were 17 boys in attendance. At my house. Probably problems #1 and #2! The behavior of some was ATROCIOUS. Never in my life. If my kids EVER behaved like that, they'd never see society again. What gives? I mean the mouths on some, disrespectful, screaming at the top of their lungs-inside. The former teacher in me came out quite a few times. It was bad. I'm still dumbfounded. Is it the age? All boys in one room? I don't know. FTR, my boys aren't typical boys in being into the rough and tumble, gun play, potty mouthed, etc. They really aren't. Five parents stayed, the rest left (which is fine). Would they have acted that way with parents around? I'm thinking yes based on the way some kids did with their parents there. I mean, one kid yelling, "hey you have no hair! You're bald!" Then scenting had a balloon, and same kid was like, "do the hair trick! Oh wait. You don't have any." Huh???? Where is the respect??? Dad was here and ignored it or whatever.

I can't be that old school, can I? I told my boys they better never act like that at a party. It would be the last one they ever attended!

 

Unfortunately, I'm seeing that kind of behavior more and more at school.  We had the kindergartener who called his mom stupid at meet the teacher night. There are multiple older kids at school that I know that regularly have their younger siblings in tears by the time they get to school from bullying in the car.  We have a few other that made me go home and tell my kids how wonderful they are because these kids leave every adult they talk to just plain mad.
 
I really just can't imagine letting my kids act like that.
 
Marissa

 

as far as the bald comment that's pretty par for the course.  I think a lot of it is that they're boys.  As in you put my son one on one with one of his friends and they're ok.  Get all 5 or 6 of them together and they're animals.  its the age.
 
as far as the mouths are concerned, my son and his friends are potty mouths but they are respectful to adults.  I've pulled my son out of parties by his ear before.  It leaves a lasting impression.

 

I think birthday parties are generally a recipe for disaster. Mob mentality + sugar? It's pretty hard to keep it all together, especially when impulse control is still a fairly tenuous thing at that age. I don't worry too much about it, other than to set limits if anyone is being hurt (physically/emotionally).

 

Honestly, part of this is age/sugar/event and I do understand that.    If my son (or my daughter) behaved that way at a someone else's house, I'd be doing what Amy did and pulling them out by the ear.

 

No sugar was had by anyone at the party yet! But ya I could totally see sugar riling them up. It may be par for the course, but it certainly won't be with my kids.

 

The kids being together certainly makes their behavior a little worse, they seem to be emboldened by their friends.  But I think it's a lack of discipline these days. There's crazy sugar induced my friends are all here and then there's I have no discipline I can do whatever I want and be rude to whoever I want behavior.  

 

I think it's the lack of discipline. The one dad who was here with a rude child, was on his phone. I think a lot of parents are in their own electronic world(I'm not immune in any way), and kids get away with a lot more.

Eye opening for sure!

 

I don't think it's sugar; rather excitement and kids. My boys are rowdy and LOUD. We've been working on inside voices since, well, babyhood and it hasn't stuck. If I would have been there, I would have asked them to quiet down and pulled them aside if they still continued.

The phones thing does annoy me, too, though in certain situations I'm guilty, too.

 

I don't know if it's really anything new.. I remember us all being really rowdy and obnoxious when we were kids, but the adults were too busy having happy hour in the other room (if they were there at all) to notice. I would obviously call kids out who were being disrespectful or hurting someone, but I would expect that kind of thing to happen in a festive atmosphere with a ton of kids. My boys didn't come with a quiet setting.

 

I don't know - I guess what you described just didn't seem like that big of a deal to me or that out of line. The only parties I've been to, as a child OR adult, that haven't been at least a *little* rowdy were boring as heck.

 

I guess I would expect that with a room full of boys playing, etc. But with someone in front of the room-who one I would expect to treat like a teacher, their behavior was uncalled for. It was a Mad Science party, so a "scientist" came in and did various experiments as well as taught them a thing or two. I would never expect my kids to behave that way in the classroom, and with another adult, I wouldn't expect them to behave that way either. Sure, if they had free reign-of course they are going to go off the handles. They ran around my backyard for 45 minutes before the show started. No issues. But with a "show" I would expect more respect.

It's something I would never have done as a kid, and I most certainly don't want my kids behaving in that manner as well.

 

I'd personally make sure my kids were being respectful of anyone doing a show or presentation-it's just rude to heckle or not pay attention-it ruins it for the rest of the group. 
However other than that, yes 18 boys (even girls that age for that matter) together and it's going to get loud and rowdy, and why I choose to do very small parties away from my home.
 
I dont mind kids getting riled up and having fun but they do need to be respectful. 

 

Ahh! That's exactly what I was picturing - a bunch of kids running around playing. I didn't realize there was a presentation from your first post. I probably would expect better behavior under those circumstances too - or offer the choice that if they didn't want to stay and watch they could continue to play in the backyard.

 

lol my bad.... I have a tendency to omit big parts of the story.