[Repti.Mom]

For those of you with school aged children, do they HAVE to attend sibling's b-day parties, or are they allowed to spend the night with at a friend's house or have a playdate that day?


We don't do huge b-day parties, usually just something with the family, so it's not a big deal if one of the other kids is at a friend's house. It's just them missing out on cake

[mom2many2010]

For any parties they are required to come, if there is something special they want to do then they need to ask the sibling who's birthday it is if it is ok for them to not attend. When I say something special I mean something that might only happen once a year or something that doesn't happen often. Play dates can happen at any point so can spending the night somewhere.

[Momtothe6thpower]

Parties where just family is invited, yes, mandatory. Parties where the birthday child just invites his/her friends, no, the bday child won't care if they are there or not.

[MamaJessie]

This summer Bastian's bday was when Sapphire was in NY but we had cake and celebrated with extended family with her before they left.If it was just to go to a friend's house I don't know what I would say. Maybe it would be ok if they did something else together to celebrate instead?

[#5in2005]

We have a "friends" party and family party, and they do have to be there for the family one, but it's not been an issue so far, they tend to want to be there.

We do make pretty big deals about birthdays here, we don't have a circus in the backyard or anything, but we do celebrate.

[my3sonsplus1]

We always have friends, family, and classmates at parties, so I let the other kids invite one of their friends. Since my kids are all so close in age it works out well and no one misses out on the party.

[IsraelSofiaMalachi&baby]

They definetley have to be there. My kids are really close though so I can't see them wanting to miss it!