As any parent of a pre-teen can testify, older kids can be pretty hard to please, and it can be hard for parents to do anything right under the critical eye of a tween. When your child’s birthday comes around, you most likely want it to be a special occasion, but it can be hard to know precisely how to achieve this. At this age, many kids are more keen to spend their special day with their friends rather than family. If you find yourself in this situation, why not arrange an awesome birthday party at home so that they can have a great time with their friends, but you are still able to keep a watchful eye over proceedings and supervise them. Sounds easy enough, right? But how do you organize an awesome birthday celebration for a tween? Check out these tips to make your kid’s birthday celebration one to remember:
Think like a Pre-Teen
Thinking like a pre-teen may sound pretty scary, but it’s one way to get your head around exactly what they want from a party and pitch it just right. At this age, kids like to feel grown up, so sticking with a tween-friendly version of being grown up may be the way to go, think ‘grown-up lite.’
Usually, a theme is an excellent idea for a party, but for this age group, a theme could be a little on the cheesy side. Unless your child suggests a theme, they are likely to accuse you of embarrassing them in front of their friends, which would be The. Worst. Thing. Ever! And quite possibly the end of the world as we know it!
By Invite Only
Kids tend to invite everyone along to their parties, so, for this reason, it’s advisable to tell them in advance how many friends they are allowed to ask. Of course, you want the kids to have fun, but you also need to make sure the party stays under control, so limiting the numbers is the way to go.
When deciding how many people should receive invites to the party, it’s worth thinking about how much space you have in your house, how much you want to spend on food and drinks for the party and how many kids you can safely supervise.
Marvellous Mocktails aka Smoothies
If you have space, setting up an alcohol-free smoothie bar area is a great way to add to the grown-up vibe of the party. Getting some funky colored glasses, complete with cocktail umbrellas and fruit will not only add to the fun but will also look great too. If you’re feeling creative, you could even put together a mocktail menu so that kids can select their own drinks.
Don’t forget to make sure to have any alcohol you may have at home safely locked away.
Say Cheese!
If there’s one thing that we can be sure of it’s that kids nowadays love a selfie. You can be confident that hiring a photo booth will always be a good idea, and will be the most popular feature at the party. When choosing a photo booth company, look for one that offers high-quality images such as Booth Boy Photo Booth.
As well as being loads of fun, the photo booth will also mean that you get lasting memories of the party, possibly to embarrass your child with on their 18th!
Make some Noise
While you may feel that you have impeccable taste in music, and pride yourself on your eclectic listening habits, your kids are almost sure to disagree! For this reason, it’s always advisable to let the kids choose the tunes. The only exception to this being if their music is unsuitable for young ears.
Cook up a Storm
Deciding what to feed the kids can be a tricky business. The most important consideration regarding food choices has to be allergies. Contacting the parents of children that will be coming to the party and finding out if they have any allergies is undoubtedly your best bet here to ensure that everyone stays safe. If someone does have an allergy, this will be your primary consideration over food choice.
Depending on allergies and any dietary requirements you may decide to keep things simple and order in pizza, or if it’s a party in the summer months, firing up the BBQ may be the best option. If you would rather save time and effort, then hiring in an outside caterer may be a good choice.
Time for Treats
As grown up as they feel that they are, you can be sure tweens will love a sweet treat at the party. From towers of cupcakes, through to sweet carts and candy floss makers, there are loads of options to choose from for party treats. The great thing about sweet treats like this is that they often create a great centerpiece for your table too.
Enlist Help
So far, all the planning sounds great, but have you thought about the night itself? Don’t underestimate the demands of a pre-teen party; you’re sure to need help, both for serving up food and drinks, as well as for keeping a watchful eye over everyone to make sure that they stay safe.
A Word on Health and Safety
When having a party at the house, it is important that the kids have fun but especially important that everyone stays safe.
Ensure that you set a finish time for the party, and make sure that each party guest gets home safely.
Contact the parents of the kids that are being invited to the party to ensure they are allowed to come and to find out if they have any allergies or dietary requirements that you need to be made aware of.
Getting a contact number for the person responsible for each child is important too, just so that you know who should be contacted in the unlikely event of an emergency.
Taking these steps should help your child’s party to be memorable for all the right reasons!