75 woman this month | May 2012 | When getting married, in order to avoid the wrath of your family, inviting their children can often seem unavoidable. However, it is perfectly acceptable not to invite them. Even if you do have a close relationship with them, you should feel under no obligation to invite them. If you are attending a wedding and your children are invited, ensure they are clothed in the proper attire, according to the dress code, paying attention to their ages. Bear in mind, this is the special day for someone you are close to and the last thing you need is your child running around the room, jumping up and down on a guest’s table, screaming at the top of their lungs. You have made the decision to invite children to your wedding. Now you need to figure out where to seat them. Not only do you need a seating plan that provides comfort and flexibility for both the children and their parents, you really need to figure out how to keep them content during the reception. If there are going to be enough children at the reception to fill a table, a children’s table is a brilliant way for both the children and the parents to enjoy themselves. If there are only a couple of children, you may just want to keep them with their parents. Children aged seven years and above are typically old enough to eat dinner at a table with the other children. Think about the placement of the children’s tables and where the parents' tables are. Consider grouping those guests with children in one area of the venue and placing the children’s tables in that same area. You can also mix the children up by ages so that some older children will be available to assist the younger children. For a children’s table, you should provide age-appropriate entertainment. Activities such as crayons and colouring books, activity books and word searches will amuse children of many different ages. If it is possible and space allows, go the extra mile and talk to the venue about setting up a table or two for the children to play board games, do puzzles, or even work on simple crafts. Hire a professional babysitter to take care of the children. This can be done either in the reception room, in a nearby meeting room, or at a hotel room where the children can hang out, watch movies, eat pizza, and fall asleep while their parents enjoy the wedding celebration. The number one rule regarding wedding etiquette, children-wise, is: do not bring them if they are not invited. For feedback, comments or questions contact Dr Jinan Darwish via email at: [email protected] • If you are having children in the wedding party, you must invite them and not treat them as props. Understand that they will be there and not just in the photos. • If you are going to have children at a wedding, provide childrenfriendly entertainment for them. Consider a separate children’s room, where they can dance and play games and be children; hire reliable babysitters to oversee the little ones. • If you are going to have children at the wedding, feed them in a timely and appropriate manner. Look for a venue that will offer child-friendly fare; make sure that the children’s meals are served in a timely manner, too, so that you're not faced with a crowd of starving preschoolers during the ceremony. Tips Children at Adult Events
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