Coming up with any birthday party ideas is hard enough. Trying to come up with teenage birthday party ideas can take on a whole life of its own. I always tell people that the number one priority, when trying to decide which teenage birthday party ideas are right for their teenager, is to keep the parent out of the mix. Teenagers do like to party, they just don’t want to party without adults.
Begin Teenage Birthday Party Ideas by Thinking of Things That Don’t Include Parents
My background includes working for hotel chains in the hospitality business. I can remember sitting in meetings with our PR people and listening to them wonder aloud why none of the teenagers were showing up for a “teen night” event that the hotel was hosting. Always one to offer my two cents worth, I suggested that perhaps they may want to start their rework by getting rid of the term “teen night”. Apparently, you see, when we become adults we seem to forget what it was like to be a teen. Because if we did remember then surely we would stop using that word when we describe the young adults in our life. I remember the people in the meeting looking at me rather confused. They had no idea that teens wouldn’t want to come to an event called teen night. The name alone reeks of an adult-organized boring event. Sorry to any of my colleagues that might be reading this but I’m just calling it like it is.
Now don’t get me wrong, the theme for teen night was well intended. It included showing action movies with pop and popcorn in a room near the activity center. The event was planned as a way for the hotels teenagers to be able to get away from their parents for a few hours. For the parents, it was a way that they could have their teenager entertained without worrying about where they are in a strange city. Then our marketing team began promoting it internally to all the hotel guests who were checking in for the weekend (the event occurred on a Friday night). The meeting in question occurred on the Monday morning when, I think, maybe one or two people showed up for the Friday night party. Without going into too many details, my colleagues didn’t seem to think there was a problem with teen night and continued to market the event hoping that it would eventually catch on. It didn’t. And life eventually return to letting the teens do eventually whatever they wanted (within reason of course).
So if you’re considering teenage birthday party ideas, my first suggestion would be to plan for an event around activities that you know the teenager in question likes to do. For example, teenagers can have a ball, without you, at paintball, zip lining or even in afternoon or evening at a Six Flags (if you’re lucky enough to live within proximity to one). But my word of advice is that whatever you decide for the birthday scene, try and remove yourself from the equation. That doesn’t mean you won’t be involved – after all who’s going to drive them there and pick them up…
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