Paying to attend birthday party?

[Sabeking]

Ok, so yesterday we drop DD off at the pool for the party. When we get to the check-in booth, the girl tells us it's $2.00. I ask her if they're giving a special "party rate"? She says "no, mrs. party hostess is paying $5.00 towards everyone's admission."
What the heck? Anyone have any clue why she can pay 5 but not 7? Makes no sense to me!!

Is "tackier" a word???

 

[matthew&haleysmom]

Paying admission for a birthday party is one of my biggest pet peeves! If you are hosting a party, pay for it! My children love going to birthday parties. This includes everything from parties at elaborate places to parties in their friends backyards. They really don't care where the parties are, they just want to spend time with their friends. This weekend, both of my children were invited to two birthday parties. They had a great time. One was a sleepover and pool party at a child's house. The other one was at a small water park. The family hosting the party at the water park paid for everyone's admission including mine and my husbands. We are close to this family and tried to pay for mine and my husband's admission; however, they refused.

I have a cousin that has elaborate birthday parties for one of her children. She has no money at all! So, she invites tons of children to the parties every year and the parents are told upon arrival that they must pay in order to attend the party. I did allow my children to go for several years; however, I had enough. This year, I made sure that both of my children were unable to attend. Then, my cousin complained to my mom and grandmother that I was being too cheap! The thing I don't get is that the same cousin refuses to have any kind of birthday party for her other children.

By the way, we do big parties for our children and foot the bill for all invited.

 

[DisneyBlonde]

Tacky.

 

[FSUDisneyGirl]

Super tacky.

Growing up, my mom was a single parent and my birthday parties were what we could afford. I remember a few years where she told me that I had $100 for a party, I could use it as a chose! I usually picked a sleep over, and spent the money on pizza, cake, snacks and drinks, decorations, and some sort of fun craft thing for us to do. We also went swimming, and filmed stupid things with our video camera...free and really fun, LOL! My mom would NEVER have let me have friends pay for their own food. How crazy! If we couldn't afford to feed that many girls dinner, then I would have invited less.

I also had the option of taking the party money, foregoing most presents, and doing Disney for a day with a friend. I actually took that path twice

 

[AlohaPolynesian]

That is odd! When I was younger, the host paying for everyone was always the case for birthday parties. However now that I am older, if I do something with my friends to celebrate, we usually pay our own part. For instance, when I was younger my parents would pay for me to bring my 6 best friends to dinner or a baseball game, or what have you. Now though, everyone pays their own share. For instance, my friend just had a birthday get together at the nail salon and we all got pedicures and drank champagne and paid for our own.

 

[DebIreland]

I do not see anything that unusual about people paying to attend a child’s birthday party.

For example, for Little Legalsea’s ‘Leventh Birthday party we chartered the Island Princess for a week-long cruise around the Polynesian Islands.

Mind, it costs us almost $3.5 million dollars to charter this cruise ship, so we felt fully justified in asking each guest to pay $8,459.98 for an inside cabin ($10,567.98 for an outside with obstructive view; $15,672.12 for a Veranda cabin, and $23,999.51 for a suite; children under age 4 months went for 8/9ths of the regular fare). Most meals (save for lunch and dinner) were free (although there was a $14.99 handling charge for breakfast). Little Legalsea’s ‘Eleventh Birthday cake was absolutely free for the children to look at behind the plate glass window (only $1.99 to enter the Birthday Cake room, and $5.99 for a slice of cake (non-corner piece). To depart the ship at each port was also free (and only $30.00 to re-enter the ship). For the adults I felt the mandatory 5-drink minimum per day ($45.99) was very reasonable ($11.99 for each drink thereafter; more if you wished alcohol in the drink).

Anyway, you never heard such bellyaching! I still feel that requiring each birthday guest to hand over their credit card for the duration of the cruise was not unreasonable. Anyway, the moral of my lesson is: get the cash up front.

 

[DebIreland]

OP

The $2 charge is very weird. Was there some reason that none of us here can think of? Did you have to sign an insurance form or anything?

My DS was invited to a friend's party in January - bowling and lunch. The morning of the party his friend phoned to say bring €10 for food if he wanted some. Very cheeky I thought especially as it was held from noon to 3pm - right through lunchtime. Who's gonna want their child to stand on the sidelines looking on while the others eat?! We gave €10 as a gift instead of the usual €20. It was just after Christmas and money was tight enough.

 

[AprilShowers]

OP

The $2 charge is very weird. Was there some reason that none of us here can think of? Did you have to sign an insurance form or anything?

No insurance forms. The place is well insured. We have been members for many years. It is a $7 charge to bring a guest. The hostess mom decided to contribute $5 towards that 7 and we had to pay the rest.
I'm over it now. At first I thought TACKY and rude! Now I just think weird!! LOL!

 

[OceanAnnie]

No insurance forms. The place is well insured. We have been members for many years. It is a $7 charge to bring a guest. The hostess mom decided to contribute $5 towards that 7 and we had to pay the rest.
I'm over it now. At first I thought TACKY and rude! Now I just think weird!! LOL!

My vote is all of the bolded above. Strange indeed. But if that's the worst thing she's done, I'd scratch my head and be over it too.