If you send out party invitations to your party guests and have planned for “X” amount of children to attend, and then some parents call you up and ask if the party guest’s siblings can also attend the party for a little while, as they, meaning the parents, have some errands to do or just want their other child included in the party, how do you handle?

Well, enough of these siblings attending your kids’ party may really throw your party budget out of whack. If this is a close family friend who calls and asks this as a favor, you may be willing to have the sibling attend the party. If you do decide to let the sibling attend, you don’t necessarily need to provide a goody bag to this additional party guest unless you feel you can afford to. It may not be a big deal for one extra sibling, but if you have 6 additional guests, you may want to think through these additional costs.

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Although we are planning on inviting our immediate family to our three-year-old’s party, and this will include the older siblings in our family, I would only like to invite his fellow friends who are three-years-old, and not their older siblings because the party is about the little ones. Is it rude to not include the siblings of my kid’s friends?

If this is for a party where you are inviting all of the families along with the children, then it would be rude to not include the older siblings because they are a part of the family.

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If you know that there will be a large number of kids attending your party and you cannot afford any more kids in terms of both your budget and/or space limitations, it is best to proactively write in your invitations that no other guests can be accommodated for this party. This is something you should do if you anticipate that parents will want the guests’ siblings to also attend, and you do not want to consider them attending due to your party plans. In this case, the clearer you can be with the kids’ parents the better and the earliest notice is also the best, and that begins with receipt of the invitation.

Use language that is clear, and explains the reason why. As an example, “Due to the large number of kids being invited to the party, no extra guests will be accommodated, including siblings.” This way people understand the reason, and you will not have to have the conversation over the phone when the parents RSVP or have the party guests show up with their siblings at the party door ~ when it will be incredibly awkward to not allow them to attend as well.