The 5 stresses of throwing a children's party

It’s been a few years since I last threw a party - a creepy crawly themed affair for my eldest in the local church hall - and I looked back at that memory with fuzzy fondness. I thought, heck why not do the same for the tiny man's birthday. We’ll have a little garden party, invite a few of his nappy wearing chums and it’ll be so much easier because we’re at home, right? Wrong!

I seemed to have developed some kind of party planning amnesia but the second I clicked send on the e-vites it all came flooding back to me...

The 5 stresses of party planning.

Have I booked enough, have I booked too much?

Gone are the days when a Spice Girl’s album on repeat and a McDonald’s toy wrapped in 15 layers of newspaper were enough to entertain the kiddies. The party industry is big business and there’s choice, choice, oh so much choice when planning entertainment for the wee ones. In hindsight I’m not sure a 5ft bell tent was necessary but I’m glad I drew the line at a party pony.

Who did I forget to invite?

So it’s a few days before the party and everything is running smoothly, all is under control, I’m not panicking (honest). Then it hits, like a bolt from the blue, I forgot to invite somebody! Several bodies in truth.
There are two options here, super short notice invite – and pray they haven’t spoken to the crowd I invited three weeks ago - or accept the mistake, hope they don’t see the pictures on Facebook and know that we won’t be invited to their child’s birthday party again, ever.

What if nobody shows up!

Ok, we all have a little bit of anxiety the night before a party but the usual worries of an empty garden and a lone child blowing out his candle were made a reality for me when not one, not two but 7 people messaged to cancel. I blame Mother Nature, spoiler of plans with little regard for outdoor birthday celebrations, she decided to throw down several (million) buckets of rain on the eve of the little guy’s big day.
On the day of the party I had resigned myself to our fate and sobbed under the hastily erected marquee. “Who’s going to eat all of this food!” I wailed to my husband, who was busy answering the door.

In my helium filled hysteria I had forgotten just how many people I had invited. Needless to say the bell tent was fit to burst when he blew out his candle, meanwhile I had found something else to panic about… 

Do we have enough?

Like a bipolar jack in the box, having experienced the soaring highs of a garden full of happy guests I quickly moved on to my next worry; do we have enough food? and for god sake how many party bags did we make! There were people everywhere, did I invite them all? Had I just counted him twice? Whatever the reason I was convinced we didn’t have enough. Thankfully there was plenty to go around, I even managed to sneak a few slices of leftover cake to go with my post-party cuppa, winner.

Am I being a good host?

Are the children happy? Are the parents happy? Does everyone have a drink? Have I spoken to everybody? Do my neighbours really like me? Argh! Have a slice of cake and chill.

What did I forget?

It was only after we had waved goodbye to the last guest that I noticed the health conscious pinnacle of my buffet lay unopened in the fridge. Two exotic fruit platters never saw the light of day, and I will forever be remembered as the mum who hosted a party with a sweet buffet and no fruit (sobs hysterically) the horror!

A few hours later, after the four of us had filled our faces with kiwi and mango. We had a jump on the castle and went to relax in the bell tent. I was suddenly filled with a happy glow. The children had fun, we saw the people we love and got together to celebrate a happy occasion,  and that is what it's all about.

Children’s parties are not dissimilar to childbirth, stressful before, frantic during and once it’s all over you can’t wait to do it again!

If you have any party planning tips tweet me

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