It’s kind of hellish, especially trying to figure out when to hold a small child’s birthday party. Now that the kids are older, it’s easier and we have options. From noon to late afternoon, everyone can finish their Little League sports, activities, church, or other general obligations in the morning and still get home at a reasonable time. Most tweens and teens don’t lose their energy by staying out until 8 or 9 p.m., so partying late at night is perfectly fine.
But with young children, there are a million things to consider. Nap times, meal times, overstimulation, and the fact that most people are up since sunrise can complicate matters. Kelsey Lucas, who runs the Instagram account Motherspeak, recently shared her solution to this problem. It’s an 8 a.m. birthday party.
To be honest, I was immediately suspicious. Maybe I’m just past toddlerhood and can’t imagine waking up early. It’s somewhere by 8 a.m. Saturday. But apparently the creepiness was overshadowed by enthusiasm. “Besides us, one “My friend, who is not a morning person, said the 8am parties were ‘demonic’, but the feedback was overwhelmingly positive,” says Lucas.
“I was nervous but here’s why this is going to work,” she wrote in the caption. “For the past three years, after a big birthday party in the afternoon, I always feel… So I was feeling stressed so I decided to try something different. “Come and have your birthday breakfast from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.”
She thought it made sense to leave early, as parents of young children are often up “at dawn anyway,” but she was still worried about what her guests would think. As it turned out, the reaction was positive.
“Right away I got a lot of emails saying, ‘This is great!’ ‘I’m stealing this idea!’
Lucas attributes the success of this approach to a number of factors. The kids are already awake, but not too tired yet. (Seriously, if you wake up at 5 a.m., you’re done for the day by noon.) Plus, leaving the office by 12 noon usually means you’re on track for nap time. There is also the issue of breakfast. It’s much easier to prepare bagels, donuts, and fruit than to come up with something everyone will like for lunch. For a summer birthday, an 8 a.m. start means the fun begins (and ends) before the worst of the day’s heat hits.
“We also let our customers know they could stop by anytime within the window, so not everyone was there the whole time,” she continues. Honestly, this feels like a drag to me. Thinking of parties as “visiting time” rather than appointment time can be very helpful for families.
Those who weighed in on her comments generally agreed with the idea. Many people had their own morning parties. (However, there were very few people who started at 8 a.m.)
One commenter wrote, “When my daughter turned 6, we had brunch for her birthday from 9am to 12pm.” “Her dad took her to get donuts and he came back to surprise us. The bounce house was set up and her friends and their parents were all in their pajamas. It was actually awesome! We had an iced coffee bar, OJ, a breakfast burrito cut in half at a local taco place, some fruit and donuts, and a giant donut cake.”
“Honestly, I really liked this,” says another. “And they gave us a wide range of hours so that even people who weren’t morning people could come at 11 o’clock. I think it would have been a lot easier to visit with people, rather than having everyone come together for 90 minutes to two hours at the same time, maybe with people coming in and going out.”
“Can we start doing this at adult parties? Even at concerts?” another person joked. “It all started too late for my liking.”
OK, calm down, ma’am. Some of us have teenagers and don’t need to be morning people anymore. Still, it just shows that you’re not have If it doesn’t work for you, do things the way others are doing them. Not only that, but there’s also a good chance there are plenty of people who agree with you.
