Birthday Parties: What to Do When One Kid Isn't Invited

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Solutions to Kids Being Left Out of Parties

So, one of the kids has been invited to a classmate’s birthday party. What does that mean for the younger sibling? Well, let’s just say there’s a sense of confusion as to why he can’t come along. This has become more of an issue recently, with Adelaide in elementary school and Marshall not. Classmates equals more opportunities for birthday parties. Unfortunately, Marshall isn’t part of those celebration equations.

What is a parent to do? For us, we’ve found that the best way to handle this is to be completely honest. “Hey, it’s okay. Adelaide’s classmate has invited her to a party. That just means you’ll get your own parties too when you get to school.” Does Marshall feel left out? Absolutely! Is there anything we can do? Absolutely…sort of.

The best efforts we can try to put in place are the simplest. Whoever takes Adelaide to whatever party or playdate is going on, the other parent takes Marshall on his own adventure. So, stick around as we share what have been the best activities to let our son have a fun time, while his big sister goes to friends’ parties.

Free Fun at Home

The easiest solution to this one-on-one time is to dive into the many things available at home. Here are some of the best activities Marshall has enjoyed.

TV time
- Frozen
- The Great British Baking Show
- Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir
Games, games, and more games!
- Feed the Kitty
- Don’t Drop Chase
Building puzzles together
- Pirates
- PJ Masks
Coloring – just to note, I love coloring with the kids, because it’s so relaxing
- Diving into coloring books is one of the best activities as a parent. Not only is it an instant stress reliever, you can let your kids pick each and every color of your creation or go wacky with a new Joker design
- Justice League
- Disney

The Outdoor Craze

If you have one-on-one time with one of your kids, take advantage of whatever outdoor space you have. In our case, we’ll throw the frisbee around, kick the soccer ball into a goal, blow bubbles, ring toss, or even just take a walk around the neighborhood. Something so simple makes life that much easier when your kids are trying to get over that feeling of being left out.

Splurge and Take a Trip for Comics or Ice Cream

One of the best ideas is taking the kids to a local comic book shop. Clearly, I’m biased since I’m a gigantic geek, but our kids love going to check out comics. They get so excited about seeing characters they know and love on the cover pages. When we do make a stop to the comic shop, we will usually let the kiddos pick out one comic for them to take home. If it’s around their birthday, that visit will also include a toy, such as a Funko Pop! of their choosing.

On the other side of things, ice cream always seems to be an easy fix for many, many things. Our kids love going to look at all of the different flavors and then getting to pick. When they were younger, they picked almost entirely based on the color, usually rainbow (ish) of some kind, but now they will ask to know about the ones that spark an interest. Birthday cake has always been a big hit, and then they’ll add things like sprinkles or gummy bears to top it off.

So Many Ideas

There are so many ways to keep kids occupied, and it seems especially important when only one gets to go to a party. What are some things you and your kids have done in similar situations? Share your thoughts with us here in the comments below or head over to Facebook or Twitter to let us know. If you like this post, don’t forget to share with all of your friends and make sure to follow us on social media for more Winey Parent fun.