When my eldest turned 12 she had a party where it was in two stages.
We had a bus coming to the house to collect kids and take them out for a fun day visiting two different fun parks. I cant remember what it cost now but as I ended up with a group of kids joining in we were given a discount. The parents could drop their child at my place to go on the bus and pay the fee which I think was $25 and the kids would be out for 5hours and then returned back to my place where food and party games would be waiting for them. If the parents didnt want their child to go on the bus they could just drop their child at my place at the same time as the bus was due back and they could enjoy the actual party with the kids that went on the bus. It was a great day for the kids and in total was 7hours that they were away from their parents. There were 14 kids on the bus and 2 that just came to the party.

Unless stated on the initial invite I’d probably tell my child no you’re not going. Not fair on all kids concerned though. What a cheek!

This is the same as expecting people to pay to attend a wedding. No. Not ok. If you can’t afford it then do something cheaper. A park is free.

Unless the party is at some kind of play centre and there’s an entry fee for each kid, even then the parents should be made aware before they accept the invite

Guests should not have to pay. I would not have a party that you would expect your guests to pay.

I meant no gift for the birthday child

I’ve always given my boys a birthday party and if it was going to be out of the house I’d work out the costs ahead of time to see if I could afford it. I’d never ask the guests to pay. I’d also only cater for the children and not their parents. I’d be offended if it was asked of me and there’d definitely be no gifts for the birthday guest

I’d pay, if I was throwing the party. And if I couldn’t, I’d make it clear on th invite that there was a Cost – INSTEAD of bringing a present.

If they were doing something crazy expensive, then maybe but honestly I wouldn’t have done that as a child’s birthday party.

Guests shouldn’t have to pay, that is crazy. If you want your guests to pay then maybe you can’t afford to have that party and should re-think it.

I think it depends on the situation. If buying a package deal with kids included then no, guests shouldn’t have to pay. But say for instance you were having a party somewhere and as you didn’t buy a package and guests could simply show up on the day and pay an entry fee- that would be okay.

I would never ask guests to pay for my parties…that’s ridiculous

I wouldn’t ever expect anyone to pay for the cost of a bday activity. But I guess it depends on the circumstances. Maybe if it was an activity and catering / lunch / drinks etc supplied then you maybe able to meet in the middle.

Seriously? No way. That is so shifty. The payment should have been advised upfront. It may be why the invite was last minute … noone else was prepared to pay it. That’s just not on.

If you can’t afford to have a birthday party for your child, don’t have one. It is not right to ask attendees to pay for the party and also presumably give a present.

I have been asked on several birthday invites to foot the bill for entry fee, which I found really odd coming from the uk we always paid for everything. In appears to be quite normal here to request entry fee in western australia. Very odd

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  • • missyj replied
    • 18 Oct 2018 , 9:22 am

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  Wasn’t the story from the UK?
  I have never been asked to contribute to a party in Aus. Sometimes we’ll casually get together and therefore pay entry to a playcentre or something like that, but it’s not an actual party…

Birthday parties these days are getting over the top. A kids party just had to be a simple little gathering with party food and cake. As long as the kids are having fun running around playing that’s all that matters.
Asking someone to pay is just rude and inappropriate

I don’t think you can invite people and then ask them to pay. Personally I would therefor explain I can’t accept the invite

Don’t throw a childrens’ party unless you can afford to pay for it, including at a venue. Imagine if you were the parent of 2 or 3 children invited to the party.

The late invite says something fell through from her end. Personally I would be embarrassed to ask for money