How often does your child get a "friends" birthday party?

I'm just curious what the norm is where you are.

My experience has been that "friend" parties tend to start in kindergarten, and parents tend to do them every other year. Jackson was invited to a ton of parties in K and 2nd, and just a few parties in 1st and 3rd. He also had his friend parties in K and 2nd.

We have a big family party for all three boys in early May each year, but I'd still like for Jackson to just have a few friends over for his birthday (April 29). Now that he's in 3rd grade, I'm afraid they'd think it was lame just to come over and play for the afternoon. Last year, we had a party at the children's museum with about 15 kids.

How do you handle it?

 

My boys all have summer birthdays which tends to make it very difficult for parties, especially since they are all right around the 4th of July when a lot of people vacation. We have never done a "friends" party per se for B&C and only once or twice for Sean. Besides, many times we are traveling at that time also. None of the boys seem to mind, though. I guess we're lame in the birthday party department but Lou and I both grew up not ever having them either so it seems normal to us, lol! Most of the time, they might have a few friends sleep over or to the movies or something as a special treat, though.

In our experience of their friends who do have birthday parties, most have them every year. There are some kids I can count on like clockwork to get an invitation from every year.

 

We don't have "big" friends parties every year. We do do family parties every year though. This year my girls turned 9 and we did a big friend party at the local pizza, miniature golf, bumper boat place. Last year was a movie party. We took about 8 girls to the movies, had popcorn, soda, then came home for cake and presents. I'm pretty sure they had no parties when they were 6 and 7, but age 5 party was a big one. So you do whatever you have time and $$$ for, right? LOL, that's pretty much how it goes here .

Some of the girls' friends, however, have big friend parties EVERY year. We've known some of them since they were toddlers, but we don't always go.

 

My children have a friend party every year as do most of their friends.

Patrick had his first one last year when he turned 5

 

My kids have had a freinds party every year since their first birthday. At first it was friends from the neighborhood, now we are moving into a mix of school and neighborhood friends. My dad's birthday is the same as the boys, so I don't have to worry about doing a family party--mom takes care of that

 

My kids have a big friend party every year. We started sleepovers at age 9, and that was the first time we'd ever had a party at our house.

 

We do big parties every year, it's pretty easy because Mandy's birthday and the twins' birthdays are pretty close, so we get it all over with pretty quickly. The girls have been going to birthday parties since they were little babies (although those baby birthday parties were pretty much for the moms to talk )

 

We had done a friends party for the first 5 birthdays. When K&D were in daycare their "classes" averaged 10-12 kids, and were were invited to a party about once a month. So, we invited the whole class and about 2 or 3 kids would show up.

Now, in Kindergarten there are 30 kids, and even though K&D have a late March birthday, they had only been invited to one birthday party so far for other classmates. And, that one was on a Monday night!

This year, K&D decided to "cash in their chips" together and we are getting an 18 foot pop-up pool for the summer. That will serve as their party and their gift.

Frankly, I think they'll get a lot more fun out of the pool.

 

We sometimes do a friends party and sometimes we don't. I told the kids a few years back that they weren't going to get a big party every year. If we don't have a party, I'll usually have them invite one friend and we'll do something fun like go to Disneyland or miniature golfing and sometimes they can have that friend sleep over as well. I much prefer that type of celebration, but I know the kids like having a bigger party now and then too. We usually get together with family on a different day to celebrate.

 

The girls just celebrated their 6th birthday on the 30th of March and we have had a party every year, around 10-15 kids. When they were in pre-k we invited the class and the same for kindergarten although this year my prents and grandparents were here for it, so it was more family/ friend party.I am not sure what we will do next year but I will continue to let them have parties for the next 3-4 years and then we will probally do sleepovers or something. I personally really get into the party thing

 

that's interesting. because my boys are in 1st--and they haven't gotten a single invite this year--though we just moved here last summer--so i don't know if they are being left out or if this is something nobody does here. there isn't much ability to talk to many of the kids parents around here either--they all sit in their cars to pick up their kids--where before we all gathered together and waited for the chidlren to come out. where we came from, everyone had big parties--and i am still planning on throwing one for the boys this summer--i just hope that people come--i don't want their little hearts broken

 

I have done a friend party every year for my 12 year old and have continued the tradition with the younger 3. My 3 yr. old will be turning 4 in a few weeks and we are going to have a pool party at our house.... We have invited about 24 kids but hopefully they won't ALL show up. The twins will be 2 the following month and we are going to have a pool party for them also.