A fairy party: mixed feelings

Little E attended her very first non-family toddler party this week. The invite arrived in her nursery bag just before Christmas and I was definitely more excited than her. A third birthday fairy party. I could barely contain myself.

The day of the party arrived and I had her outfit all organised and colour cordinated. Even the present was fairy themed. We arrived and my excitement level rose - there was an entertainer dressed as a fairy!!! I won't use her real name, for purposes of this post I shall call her Fairy Sheila.

Fairy Sheila quickly took charge of the children (and adults) explaining the rules (yes, there were rules at this party) which mainly involved the faries (children) only speaking when they put their hands up and the adults not speaking at all as the faries needed to concentrate on their instructions... This is when I started to panic. Little E concentrating for two hours? My blood pressure rose a little. Remember, this is the child a professional nursery call 'a challenge'.

I shouldn't have worried - she was great at pass the parcel and carefully unwrapped her layers very delicately before passing it along to the next fairy. She struggled a little with the concept of games which involved someone being out and preferred to just keep playing regardless. Following dance moves was a bit hit and miss - what can I say, my child prefers to freestyle. So overall she did really well and I couldn't fault her behaviour (pride seeping from every pour).

Now, Fairy Sheila was another matter. Firstly she completely ignored Little E unless she had her hand up. There was no acknowledgement that she was speaking to her or encouragement to raise her hand so she could respond, she just acted like she wasn't there. Secondly, each game had a prize or two given out at the end. There were only five faries. About 15 prizes were given out. Little E did not win one single prize. Don't get me wrong, my child doesn't need to be the best at everything, in fact she doesn't need to be the best at anything as long as she is happy, but it became apparent half way through that Fairy Sheila was avoiding rewarding Little E. I openly admit most of the other children were concentrating and following instructions better but she was clearly loving every second and trying so hard. And at the end of the day they are three years old! Surely Fairy Sheila should be making sure her prize giving is reasonably evenly distributed amongst the children, all the winners were decided by her apart from the 'find the hidden fairy' game. Remember there were only five of them to keep track of, she knew Eloise hadn't won anything.

It all seemed to go over Little E's head, although she was a little miffed at why she hadn't received anything from the special fairy bag when all the other children had a number of times. At the end if the party Fairy Sheila offered her 'a consolation prize as she hadn't been very good at winning prizes'. That is a direct quote.

I didn't say a word. I was honoured that Little E had been invited to this special party, the concept was great and it was lovely that the birthday fairy's parents (who were running around keeping the parents entertained)had gone to the trouble of hiring an entertainer to make the day special for the children. But Fairy Sheila shot herself in the foot because next year when I organise Little E's fourth birthday party guess who I won't be ringing for a quote...

My little fairy

This post is linked to the #PoCoLo twitter fun over at http://www.vevivos.com/2014/01/17/post-comment-love-newbie-showcase-17th-19th-january-2014/