How To Survive Your Child’s Birthday Party: Planning, Celebrating and Beyond

Posted: 21st June 2017

By Lucy Gill, Business Development Manager, Gymboree Play & Music UK

cake The special day has finally arrived after what seems like months and month of planning and preparation. The three tiered ‘Pepper Pig’ cake is in the fridge, the ‘Paw Patrol’ balloons are filled with helium and the entertainer is armed with all three verses of your little one’s favourite ‘Mr. Tumble’ song.

What could possibly go wrong?

Shock, horror, it’s the morning of the party and your darling child tells you that; Pepper Pig is no longer cool, they now hate Paw Patrol and have apparently never heard of Mr Tumble! In fact, they now want a Superhero party just like Sally had last week!

How do you react?

Full on panic and a crazy dash to the supermarket? A last minute Amazon Prime Now order to try and make sure your little one has everything they could possibly want? Or take a breath, smile and think ‘actually, none of that really matters’.

Yes you’ve spent a small fortune to make this party ‘the best one yet’ but remember, with all your friends and family in one place, your child surrounded by presents, cake, food, balloons and a day dedicated just to them; this is definitely more than enough love, fuss and attention they need.

Having worked as a Gymboree Play & Music party leader for many years, I am going to give you my top tips on how to survive your child’s birthday party.

Send out your invitations in plenty of time. The competition for that Saturday afternoon slot can be tough; don’t risk leaving it too late and being disappointed.
Consider sharing the day with a friend. Birthday parties can be expensive and require lots of planning, why not share the load?
Don’t focus too strongly on one theme, children tend to change their minds very quickly. Think of a theme that can be easily adapted, examples are Jungle Safari, Football, Pirates & Princess or Under the Sea!

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Reviews

Both of my children (3.5 years and 11 months) go to Gymboree Play & Music and love it. My toddler goes to their drop-off Lego class which she raves about. It's very creative, working not only on Lego skills but also painting, drawing etc. My infant son loves his Gymboree Play & Music Crawlers class - particularly loves crawling all over their props, through the tunnels, etc. Great way to get the infant crawling over obstacles! Gymboree Play & Music is part of our weekly schedule for both kids and we look forward to participating every week. Invaluable!

Natalia, Hampstead

Gymboree Play & Music was a lovely and positive experience for my son Leo. We started when he was 9 months and he is now 3 years old, I wish we had started sooner.
He loves the songs (which is part of our daily singing at home), the freedom to explore and he was happy there. He looks forward to class every week and once class is over he will tell everyone about Gymbo and what he did.
For me, I liked that it taught him how to get down safely from a height, how to learn to use his body, and touching on different topics every 2 weeks. It gave me confidence in other environments to trust that he has the ability that he learned from Gymboree Play & Music and to trust him.

Sheena, Sevenoaks

I’ve been taking both my newborn and toddler to Gymboree Play & Music for a couple of months now and both boys are really loving the classes and open gym sessions. It’s a great way to meet other mums, entertain toddlers at witching hour(!) and get ideas for sensory play with babies. Sophie and Cat are fantastic and have so much energy and loads of different ideas for the classes, plus make sure the activities it’s help children meet their development milestones as well. Highly recommend this if you’re thinking about joining!! Thanks so much Sophie, Cat and the wider team :-)

Pippa, Tunbridge Wells