Every child looks forward to their birthday party! Getting presents, seeing their friends and eating lots of junk food is always a good time but for parents there can be such a pressure to make the day flow smoothly and give the kids a great party. It can all get very expensive very quickly and there really is no need as children are luckily quite easy to please. Here are some tips to make any birthday party a special day whilst putting less pressure on yourself.

Invite Less People

This is always seen as a controversial move from other parents at school because there is always the question of who gets invited and who doesn’t. When you consider some classes have 20-30 or so children in them and then you want to invite other friends from outside of school, the party can quickly turn into a 35+ child event! That’s a lot of mouths to feed and keep entertained, especially when your child only considers around 12 of them to be their actual friends! Don’t fall for the people pleasing peer pressure of inviting the whole class, have a small party, invite your child’s actual friends and you’ll find a whole load of stress lifts from your shoulders. Also if you just go for it and invite less people, I guarantee other parents are breathing a sigh of relief that they now also don’t have the pressure to invite the whole class.

Use Public Areas

Fingers crossed the weather is nice because heading to a public space such as a park is a great idea for a fun, affordable party! Bring some food and music, set up blankets on the ground and let the children go crazy in the park. The options are endless as you could bring outdoor sports games, water guns or stick to the classic egg and spoon and sack races! Children love that kind of stuff and they will stay entertained for hours.

Call In Some Favours

Time to get create! Party entertainers can cost a fortune so have a think of who you know that could help you out. You know someone good at art? Well that person’s now head of the face paint/henna station. You know someone who can braid hair? Head of hair and makeup station. It takes a village to raise a child and kind people are generally happy to help out if you give them some food, wine and always have their backs too then those are the friends you can rely on.

Party Games

I was nannying for a child recently and they said that for their birthday they wanted a retro party. “What do you mean by retro party?” I asked. “Well one with the old fashioned games like Pass The Parcel and Musical Bumps.” HAHA! Listening to a 5 year old child call Pass the Parcel an old fashioned retro game did make me chuckle, but we did agree on one thing- the older games are the best! Have a list of games you could quickly whip out at any time during the party. When children are bored and full of energy they tend to just run around like crazies which can often end in hurting themselves. Directing all of this energy into organised, safe games is far better than watching them try to play chase in your home with it ending in tears.

At the end of the day you only really need to make sure one person has an amazing time and that is the birthday boy or girl. Listen to any themes they would like or specific games to play as i’m sure they will have lots of ideas.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or topics you would like me to discuss in future blogs please send an email to: nannyemmyquestions@gmail.com