Two Proven Ways to Prevent Booking Cancellations

Just the thought of birthday party planning can send many parents into a spin. Thinking to save the house from the rumble and tumble you would expect from super active kids, many opt to hold the party at a park. But in fact, rushing off to the park to save your house from the juvenile demolition team is a knee-jerk response that often brings more problems than solutions. So what do you do? STAY CALM. Organising a 4- to 7-year-olds party is very simple if you understand the needs and dynamics of those who will attend. There are four main stakeholders at a birthday party: the birthday child, his or her parents, the invited children, and their parents. Here are what they want: > The birthday child wants to be king or queen for the day and get presents—lots of presents. > The hosting parents want no stress and no mess. > The visiting children want to be entertained and active. They are not interested in food. > Their parents want to be able to drop them off and run or for it to all end as quickly as possible. Keeping this in mind, the optimum length for a party is 2 hours. This length fits the attention span of kids, allows parents to slip away to run an errand or two, and is manageable for the host family. The best times to start the party are 10 am, 12 noon and 2 pm. Why? These are natural mealtimes. Parents can give their children a quick nutritious meal before they arrive to keep them going until the party food is served later on. Remember, children are not interested in wonderful arrays of designer food. They want chips, lollies and a drink that they can grab and run with. Sit-down affairs with fancy nutritious food feel too much like school. So save yourself the time, money and stress and fill paper bowls with snack foods from the supermarket. Kids do not even need fizzy soft drinks. They are happy to wash down the treats with a sip of water. So far you have saved your furniture from half-eaten food and drinks, but what about the rampaging hordes damaging the rest of your home? Easy—channel their energy. With the money you saved by keeping the food simple, get a professional in who knows how to skillfully harness their destructive energy for the forces of good, not evil. Clowns, face painters, balloon twisters, magicians, jumping castles. There are many good professionals available. So your party schedule would run like this: …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 0000 Guests arrive, finger food out, simple games, last of latecomers arrive 0030 Entertainment begins 0115 Entertainment ends. Toilet breaks, etc. 0125 Blowing out of the candles, singing of the song, cutting of the cake, and eating 0140 Simple party game 0155 Party bags given out, lost shoes found 0200 Wave goodbye ……………………………………………………………………………………………… So far your home has survived, your sanity is intact, and you have delayed the bad behaviour until the children are on their way home with their parents.