A Parent Wonders If A 9:30 AM Birthday Party Is "Too Early"
She’s thinking of booking the slot for her 4-year-old.
Planning or attending birthday parties is one of the less talked about tasks of parenthood. Whether we’re RSVPing, wrapping gifts, making awkward small talk with other parents, or planning our own kid’s soiree, a lot goes into this bucket of parenting. One mom is feeling the pressure as she plans her four-year-old’s birthday, wondering if the time of the potential party is “too early.”
Turns out, she might have actually found the best time to have a kid’s birthday party, ever.
In the Mommit subreddit, user @sidney-cat posted, “Would you go to a kid's birthday party at 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday? About to book my son's 4th birthday and that’s the only slot they have available. Not sure if it would be too early for most.”
After her post gained some upvotes from other moms, she was met with several people who informed her that 9:30 a.m. is actually a great time for a birthday party!
One user wrote, “Yeah. Usually we’ve lived 3 lives by 9:30 am.”
Another said, “Yep that’s a great time for that age honestly.”
One user extrapolated on that point and responded, “Especially because if there's a birthday party, my kids will be up at 5 am and asking every 20 seconds ‘Is it time to go yet?’ Heading out the door at 9 am sounds infinitely preferable to trying to stop my kids from losing it before midday.”
This is an excellent point! When a birthday party starts mid-afternoon and lasts for a few hours, parents are kind of stuck. Typically, there’s not enough time to get out the door to do anything before the party (even if you’ve been up since 6 a.m.) and by the time it’s all wrapped up —‚ it’s dinner, bath, and bed. A mid-day birthday patty kind of takes up the whole day!
The consensus from moms seems to be that the best time to throw a younger kid’s birthday party is either before nap and lunch or later in the afternoon (4-5 p.m.) so the kids are nice and zonked for bed!
