Seperate childrens table?

lynnexxxo

Hi everyone, first of all sorry for my prolific posting!

Another question for you all... We are having approximately 15 kids for our meal. Do you think I should sit them seperately at a kids table (with a foil balloon each and maybe some colouring pens etc) or would you just let them sit with their parents.

I've assumed that under threes might want to sit with their parents, but the rest of the kids are between four ish and about 12, so its not like they will need help eating.

My thoughts are
1, they probably will enjoy sitting together but
2. it might turn out to be a disaster and they might end up all fighting or throwing food at each other.

All opinions welcome.....

LegalBlonde

i have been thinking the same (i think our wedding is around the same time) but i am just going to sit them with their parents. i think it will be nice for different (whole) familys to sit together, I was at a wedding in January where the kids just sat with their parents and had adult meals and it was fine.

even if it went ok at a kid's table i think there would be some parents who wouldn't be able to relax and just leave them to it, and they might need someone to tell them to keep quiet for speeches etc......but it is a lovely idea and might work for yours depending on the layout.

I am not sure about colouring pens etc I have always wanted to do something like that but sometimes in my family my ideas don't really translate to reality and people are like "what's this all about"......

RainbowDrops

We only had 5 kids & they were sat with their parents. HTH.

Mrsanders

We had a seperate kids table set up directly in the middle of the other tables so parents could still keep an eye on them, I bought lots of pencils and paper and stuff, and then we got to the reception late because of the rain and the airshow and found when we got there it was full of adults anyway! (we didn't have a seating plan)

Tbh all the kids were really well behaved and kept themselves occupied, there was about 35 of them ages ranging from 2-11 so it maybe handy to have a few bits and pieces but I wouldn't worry about it too much

Dasa

Whatever you decide I think you are really nice to be giving the kids so much thought on your big day. Good for you.

warehouse

If you sit a load of kids together the noise will be ridiculously high. Sit them with their parents but get table distractions for any under 10's.

abis21

As a mum of an enthusiastic 5 year old, it would terrify me leaving her on a seperate table at a wedding. I would be so worried that she would be doing something daft or not sharing colours nicely or something. I mean, she normally perfectly well behaved - but they all have their moments, and its usually in the most public place possible that they do choose to show you up :rotfl::rotfl:

And on the other end of the scale, I have met some really shy kids who would be petrified at being away from their parents.

I would have hoped that nobody would dare to throw food or anything as disasterous as that at a wedding tho!! :eek: And I bet all the kids would love it, and I'm sure it could all work out perfectly. Maybe chat to their parents and see how they feel about it?

3v3

Sit them with their parents so they can learn social skills. How else will they learn how to behave in that setting unless they are completely involved? Teaching children social skills is just as important as any other learning.

Kittendreich

Unless they all know each other and you know they can all behave I'd sit them with their families. It is only for the meal as they can mingle before and after. Otherwise the parents will have to keep getting up and down to see to them and make sure they are behaving.

We had small bags of goodies for each of the kids (there were 10 ranging from 12 years to 4 weeks!) mostly the same (colouring pencils, notebook, puzzle game, bubbles, light up baloon etc - quiet, non-staining!), except a bit more age appropriate for the eldest (added a wee lip gloss set) and the two babies (they got a cuddly animal). All the kids really liked it and it helped them stay at the table when they got a bit bored (most we knew would anyway, but one family of 3 aren't used to it so it helped encourage them to stay at the table like the others).

pinkteapot

We sat the kids with their parents but had a goodie bag for each.

When we looked through our guest book the next day, one of the kids had drawn a picture of us using the pencils/paper in the goodie bag and put it in the guest book.

lynnexxxo

Thank you for all your suggestions. See one of the problems is that four of the kids are mine, and I kinda had hoped for them not to sit next to me ( i do love them its just they are messy little !!!!!!s). However my youngest are just two so I'm not sure if they would sit with their older brothers or end up sitting on my knee!

I know really well about half the children coming and know they would be quite happy to have their own table and would be quite happy without parents but their are a few that I don't really know, and most of them fall into the younger age bracket . So not only are some of them quite young but they don't really know my children that well so probably want to stay next to their parents, but then if I have a table with my kids and their friends they might feel left out.....

I think I might designate seating plans to my bridesmaids - then they can decide!!