'Hip hip, no way!' Mum says she won't let her kids go to birthday parties

“Sounds more like mum doesn’t want to change her personal lifestyle for her kids."

Prioritising what’s important as a family can be a tough gig, but for Emily Oster there’s one childhood activity that’ll never come first. 

Children’s birthday parties. 

The economist and mum of two says her family prefers to forego social occasions to instead focus on family time.  

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"That’s not everybody’s thing, but that’s our thing" 

Oster explained her anti-party stance in a recent episode of the podcast ‘We Met At Acme’, which was posted to TikTok.  

“The idea of prioritising some time that the four of us can spend together that is family time, that is very central,” she explained. 

“That’s not everybody’s thing, but that’s our thing. Once we have that, it sort of rules out many other things.” 

She says she’s not entirely against the ide of parties, but there’s lots of factors that play into the decision of letting her kids attend. 

“It’s not that I’m categorically opposed to the concept of a birthday party. If there were a Sunday afternoon birthday party, which is a time at which we don’t generally do things as a family, I would be happy to let my kid go if they wanted,” Emily continued. 

However, should a party were to clash with time often put aside for family it would be a hip hip no way!  

“If the birthday party is a Sunday morning, which is a time that we like to go hiking or do stuff together, it’s just no,” she explained. 

The weekend is when her family reconnects and it’s an agreement within the family unit that isn’t going to change. 

We decided a thing that was important, and the other thing is less important, and this other thing is less important because we said this first thing was the most important,” she said. 

Image: TikTok / @wemetatacme & Instagram @profemilyoster

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"Mum doesn't want to change her lifestyle"

The comment section had some strong opinions about Oster's views. 

“Sounds more like mum doesn’t want to change her personal lifestyle for her kids. She wants to hike, the kids would likely rather be at a birthday party for a friend,” one commenter criticised. 

“My mum was like this. Eventually if you deny enough parties, people will just stop inviting your child. It was very sad for me,” a second person agreed. 

A third wrote “I’m a teacher. Kids talk about their birthday parties all week and after the weekend. You’re excluding your child not just from the party, but from the whole experience around it. It’s isolating.” 

Originally published as 'Hip hip, no way!' Mum says she won't let her kids go to birthday parties