Children’s parties can be great craic but they can also cause a lot of mess and waste.
I am planning my daughter’s birthday party for the end of the month and she has invited her whole class (yikes). She has already excitedly made a list of all the food we “need” to have at it and I am already worried about how much it will take to feed 25 kids and how much waste will be left over afterwards.
I was worried about it, that is, until I came across this brilliant party hack that I will definitely be trying out.
TikTok creator and mum-of-two Daisy Woods, who goes by the handle Muddle Through Mummy, recently celebrated her little boy’s sixth birthday and instead of making plates and plates of cocktail sausages, rice crispy buns and sandwiches, she made a packed lunch for each child. Daisy bought some cardboard lunch boxes from Amazon (but we have found some right here in Ireland) and filled it with some healthy things and some treats that the party guests were sure to love.
She made a selection of ham and cheese and jam sandwiches, fruit, yoghurts, crisps and chocolate chip cookies and filled the boxes with them. The idea was that the kids could then take the lunch boxes home after the party and eat whatever they couldn’t finish during the party.
She also shared the cost of doing this which worked out at under £30 – or around €35 which certainly seems like a good deal!
Daisy said that it would be “a lot easier than doing a full buffet” for the age group plus it costs less and there will be far less wastage.
“It might not be your preference but I’d encourage you not to fall into the trap of doing what ‘everyone else is doing’ for kids parties; your child’s party is about them, what works for your budget and ultimately, what you’re willing to do, not other people’s expectations,” she told her Instagram followers.
Then there was the question of whether she should feed the parents who come to supervise their kids at the party – some said yes and some said no. What do you do?