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As a general rule of thumb, if there is a parent / baby sitter / caregiver present I try and let them take care of matters, using the lower end of my interpretation of generally accepted behavior as the yard stick for when to interfere. If I do think I have to interfere I'll address the child, not the parent. This usually helps. If that rubs the parent the ...

I've found that children generally are deferential to adults who aren't their relatives or friends. So be friendly and don't be scared to engage with them. I've found if children are hogging stuff, if you say: "Hey there can my kid have a go on this, it looks cool?" will usually result in them moving along to something else, or showing you and your kid how ...

We did this for my son on his 3rd birthday and most recently for his 4th birthday and he definitely had a blast. My son goes to childcare 4 days a week and he had a great time playing with his friends. On his second birthday we only had close friends and family and he was definitely too small to have close social bonds with his friends to have a large ...

If you don't feel comfortable interfering here, either because you think you're going to rage out or because you don't see any possible positive outcome, then avoid the place altogether. Instead, I would find similar places that have more supervision, or if wherever you live has limited children's activities, go with a bunch of friends who have kids about ...

Somewhere we read this guideline for small kids' parties, and we've found it a pretty good rule of thumb: Limit the party to one friend per year of age. A child turning one can have fun with one friend and a few parents/relatives, but they aren't social enough to appreciate or enjoy a larger group, and things can get overwhelming. As kids get older it's ...

Different approaches may apply in different cultures. But is there any reason not to have a small party and a fuss starting with the 1st birthday? Family will definitely want to be involved and most infants will enjoy the attention and they will enjoy observing the excitement in the faces of the adults around them. Not so many adults that the child is made ...

First of all, as a former teacher, in regard to the chaperoning situation I would say, When you are the chaperone your rule rules. Before going, everyone should be clear about what the rules and expectations are, but "when in Rome" applies here. If you use corporal punishment (which, based on other postings here I doubt, but if you do, make sure other ...

We just had my son's third birthday party at a Little-Gym-type place, with his friends from school and family. He had a great time, but certainly wouldn't have noticed the difference if we baked him a cake and sang "Happy Birthday" in the house. Four or five is probably a better age to throw a party that will make an impact. Any younger, it's really more ...

It is very hard to deal with undisciplined children, especially when they have disciplining parents. A few suggestions: Speak to the parent privately and give suggestions. Demonstrate good parenting at all times. Teach your child to remove themselves from the situation. Teach your child, and this is a big one in our family, that different children have ...

I've never been shy about "helping" other parents out when what they're doing (or more often what they're not doing) isn't working. I've found that typically if you get on to another parents child, one of two things will happen: The child will run off and whine to their parents about you chastising them. The parent will come over, give you dirty looks, and ...

I'd leave and find somewhere else and other groups of people to play with. We're lucky to have places to go where we meat other conscious and reasonable parents so we don't experience this sort of thing often, but when we do we stay close and leave as soon as we can basically. However fun it seems, it's not worth it. A side effect of "depriving" your ...

For the first three years we did family parties, with a large extended family there are fewer chances of boredom as there is usually someone to play with. After we got to pre-school and started having playdates the birthday parties started and these were often kid only affairs, separate from a family party. Now we do the kid's party and then the family ...

I agree with Korneel and Kevin. I would tell my child privately that that behavior was not OK in our family. I do think kids can accept that there are different rules in different envrionments. I would also, depending on the age of the child, speak to some extent as to WHY that behavior is not OK. And I completely agree with the safety line that Korneel ...