Purdue University Agricultural Extension Service
Mimeo HE - 158 April 1953 (9c)
Parties for Preschool Children
by
Dorothy V. Mummery Family Life Specialist
An Interview

Interviewer:	Our broadcast today Is about helping preschool children
entertain. It sounds as if we were going to talk about parties, doesn’t it? To most children the word "party" is pure magic.
It means friends to play with, fun and food. But unfortunately, to many mothers, a children’s party means a real ordeal. They wear themselves out getting ready for it, only to have the children cry, quarrel and refuse to play games. By the end of the day, both children and mother are cross and irritable.
Reply:	Yes, that is a good description of too many children’s
parties, and how mothers feel about them. I am sure many mothers feel that life would be far more serene and peaceful if children never coaxed to have a part. One mother described the average children’s party like this: "Children’s parties” said she "They are a seething mass of children each engaged in their own separate career of destruction.” - Too often for the children, too, as you say, they are a time of tears, fatigue, quarreling, and feeling that mother does not quite like us the way we are - because we have not been on our good behavior. Of course, this is not true of all parties.
Interviewer:	Why, do you think, it is true of many?
Reply:	Because we expect too much of children. We expect them to act
in a way we never expect at any other time. We expect them, right on the day they have to miss their nap, to take a lot of directions and play some organized games far too old for them.
-	How could children be on their best behavior when we interrupt the even tenor of their lives - put the party at naptime, feed them a lot of rich, indigestible food, overstimulate them by too big a crowd, too much excitement?
-	Most parties for children could be less fatiguing on adults and children and more enjoyable, too, with a little careful planning.
Interviewer:	You know, I had been under the impression that the most successful  parties were those where mothers had not done such elaborate planning. For one thing, she was less tired. Now you say parties would be more successful if we plan.
Reply:	Well, there is planning and planning. You have in mind elaborate preparations for an elaborate affair including all the children of the neighborhood in spite of age range or all the children in your child's school room. And with elaborate refreshments and elaborate decorations, and all the mothers, invited, too.
- Is that the sort of thing you had in mind?
Interviewer:	Yes, that is what I meant.
Reply:	What I have in mind is careful planning of another sort, - to