Age Considerations 

Before you draw up your guest list and send invitations, be sure you consider the age of your child and the guests you are inviting.

If all the guests at the party will be around your child’s age, the formula is pretty simple.  If you are inviting a mixture of age groups, you will have to consider games, activities and possibly even food and favors that are different for each age group and the number of children you invite will be different depending on this mix.

A good party size should have at least 10 kids and no more than 20-25 kids. Of course, if the kids are young, you should look at just 10 kids or even lesser.

Timing for parties

When you consider the age(s) of the children you are inviting and YOUR child’s age, you should also consider the best TIME to schedule the party. 

In general, younger children (ages 1-4) are better behaved and happier if the party is early in the day (starting the party at about 10:00 a.m. and ending it at about 11:30 is fine) and for children this age, you should consider having the parents stay for the party to give you extra help and provide parental discipline to their child if there are issues. This takes into account most children’s naptimes and will prevent crankiness and party disaster.

For children ages 5-10, parties that start at about 1:00 and end at 3:00 are well timed or you can schedule a party from 2:00 to 4:00 for this age group and still be pretty safe as long as the children you are inviting do not have sports or after school activities that will conflict.  

For children this age, you probably don’t need the parents of the guests to stay for the party, but you may want to invite one or two parents, OR a family member or friend as chaperones. Supervision is still important and if you have six or eight kids running around it is easy to lose track of what is going on.