Somebody help me with this

NuggetBrain

Why are some people so "OMGWTFEwwwwwww!" about having children at their wedding?  Honestly, I just don't get it.  They don't drink, so it's not like you have to pay for extra booze.  Kid's meals are like, half the cost of adult meals so it's not like you'd be piling hundreds more on your food cost.  As far as having "adult time", trying telling me that when your drunk Uncle Frank is prancing around on the dance floor to Abba shirtless.  Seriously, I've seen wasted adults be far more immature than 5 year old kids at a wedding.  I don't understand why some folks are so insistant on not having children at the wedding.  Halp?

Soon-to-be Mrs. Vogt

Because they don't want real life to get in the way of their picture perfect day? Or, they have zero relationships with children in real life. Those are the only two things I can think of, because I can't imagine not having kids at my wedding. They're part of my daily life and I don't even have kids yet - why would I want to exclude them from this one day? If they scream, then their parents can remove them or they can play with the toys I'm providing for them. If they giggle and laugh and dance and have a good time then...yeah, that's cute and I'm happy. Nothing bad to say about kids

mandysmear

People are rude and won't take their screaming child out of the church during the vows.Kids get in the way of the adults on the dance floor. ie. you almost step on them because their parents aren't watching them and they're crawling on the floor. Have temper tantrums.Make a mess.

crfische

Personally, I just don't like the presence of children. Crying, whining, running around...blach. Also, because of drunk uncle Frank, I don't think it was going to be a good environment for kids.But I totally get that it's a personal preference. That's just mine.

NicoleSahara

I had kids at my wedding at it was fine, BUT I was pretty bummed that a little kid caught both the garter and the bouquet. Other than that the kids were great, and kept the dance floor going.

AlexiaANDRobert

We're doing it due to size restrictions on the room and we just don't want them there.I don't see the problem with telling someone 8 weeks in advance that they're going to need a sitter.

anna.oskar

I wouldn't mind kids, but there are just too many in FI's family.The original guest list had 57 kids and 53 adults.  If we hadn't have cut kids, we wouldn't have been able to invite any friends to the wedding at all.  His cousins are rabbits apparently.

ndzenowski

Because some people find children extremely annoying and want nothing to do with them.

meriamjuicy

I plan on having the kids at my ceremony and reception.  They tend to be my favorite family members. 

AlexiaANDRobert

Oh, and I have NOTHING against kids.  I LOVE them.  I just don't think a Catholic ceremony and a wedding reception (with alcohol) is a place for them. If I have children and we're invited to an adult reception, I'll get a sitter or stay home.THAT'S what I don't understand - if someone tells you "No kids" what's the big deal?

BecW2be

It doesn't really bother me one way or the other. I have kids invited to my wedding, a crap ton now that I think about it. My FSIL's MIL is going to stay in the sunroom with any kids under 3 for the ceremony, just because for 15 minutes I don't want tiny kids to run around and cause a commotion. The worst wedding I remember going to was when a freakin 15mo. old ran around and squealed during an entire ceremony. The parents just giggled and tried to get him to come back up the aisle. I wanted to claw their eyes out. I certainly don't judge anyone for not wanting kids at their wedding, though. It's a celebration. Some people don't want kids running around. To me it's not a big deal. I have only taken my girls to family weddings, even if they were invited. They don't want to have to sit around in dresses with adults any more than I want them to.

tlv204

At my venue children cost the same as adults.  If I had invited all first cousins' children, it would have been an extra 25 people, which we couldn't afford.  Plus, most of them are brats and the parents don't know how to keep them quiet at things like wedding ceremonies.  The few children we did invite behaved fine, but that's because the youngest one was 11

mandysmear

For the record we had kids at our wedding.  There were 3 kids under the age of 3 and 16 and 14 year old.

jagore08

I didn't have kids at my wedding for two reasons. 1) My venue actually charged the same amount for meals and bar for kids. It saved us a ton of money to not have them there. 2) I love my cousins kids, but the majority of them are spoiled and don't have good behavior. My cousins let them run around with no regard for anyone around them.

georgia_bride09

I had about twenty kids at my wedding, so I don't know. Personally, as a bride, if any of the kids had issues, I didn't notice- I assume their parents took care of it. I have a lot of kids in my family, so there was no way I was going to exclude them. They had more fun dancing than anyone else. I guess if someone has no experience with kids, or doesn't have any in the family, they just don't want to interact with them on their wedding day.

maggyruth

The only reason I (albeit briefly) considered not inviting children was the sheer number of them (30 of the 100 people on my guest list are children under the age of 10.)  I love children, but that many, to me, is extremely overwhelming (even if their parents have a good handle on them/they are extremely well behaved, etc).That being said, I am having them at my reception...it's going to be an afternoon deal, so it will work out better for the parents.(And after I counted how many children, it made me realize that my friends just really like to procreate...I guess that's one way to keep warm during the winter here in WI...)

tlv204

We also don't have any nieces or nephews or friends with children, so the closest children in our family are second cousins.  That might make a difference.  Also, I honestly do not like most children.  I rarely find them cute and usually find them annoying, but again that's probably because we aren't close to any kids.  When our siblings and friends start having kids, it might be very different. 

zippityb

We are serving children on the menu and thought it would be in poor taste to have free range ones roaming around.

temerityjane

First, let me say that we will be having children at our wedding simply because there is no practical way to create a child cut off.However, up until I was actually planning on getting married, I always assumed I would have a child free reception, at least, if not ceremony.It has nothing to do with not wanting to be the center of attention, it has nothing to do with not wanting "real life" to intrude, it has nothing to do with food cost or alcohol cost. Some people just do not enjoy the presence of children, myself included. I don't hate kids. I don't relate to kids and I don't enjoy the way they behave. I don't like when children at a wedding or other event all play together and run around. The shrieking sounds that kids make when they're playing grate on my nerves. It gets a little old being painted as a satan on these boards for not wanting to include children. I don't care for children. That doesn't make me a bad or evil person, I don't think. We can all go on and on about how the bride expressing any preference about how she would like the day to be automatically makes her the evil one, but I don't see why, if I'm paying for a significant portion of the day, and it's my wedding, I couldn't have it the way I wanted if I didn't care to have children there. I don't like kids. They bother me.

fangsiting

Because kids don't buy their own presents, the selfish brats just let their parents buy a gift.  I can understand if there are a lot of kids, because that could change the dynamic, but out of maybe 120 guests, we'll probably have less than 5 children.  Not many young kids in our families and only a couple of my friends have children. 

Soon to be Mrs. Krebs

I know that personally I have a huge family. My dad has 11 brothers and sisters, who all have kids, who all have kids. I will invite all of the children to the wedding and reception. If they all show, there will be 25 children there under the age of 18...and that is just my side alone. I think my future husband will have an extra 10 to invite from his side. That's a lot of children, and we don't mind it, but if you're someone who doesn't particularly like kids, that's A LOT of children running around. Not only that, but children's meals do add up fast (just like everything else about the big day lol). With 25+, that's definitely an added expense, but we are totally fine with it because we are all close.I think that ultimately it's the couple's decision of whether or not to invite children to their event, and people should respect it. And I don't think they really have to justify their reasons with anyone but eachother as to why they would like to celebrate with adults only.

ffmaid

We had family kids only. These are kids we will always have a realtionship with. We did not include friends kids except my godson. If including friends kids  we woudl have added over 50 people Inclusion or exclusion was based on relationships with ethe kids not age.

wadingmoose

I don't like kids.  I kinda wish that I could have a kid free wedding, but not inviting my nieces and nephews would result in my brother and my FSIL not attending.  They're important to me so...

SwedishChick2011

Some people just really don't like kids.  I have my moments where they bother me, but I don't mind them most of the time.  We only had like 3 kids at our wedding because all of our cousins are grown up, and inviting the children of cousins would have caused the guest list to go WAY up.  But the 3 kids we did have were very cute and well behaved.  I agree that adults can sometimes act way more inappropriately than kids at times, especially when they've thrown back a few.

NuggetBrain

For the record, I never said anybody was Satan or horrible for not having children at their wedding.  I honestly did not understand why people felt so strongly about not having kids there.  Not just "I'd prefer not to, but if I have to oh well.", more along the lines of "No way in hell am I having children at my wedding."  I obviously didn't consider some of the reasons that popped up on here either. 

tlv204

Think about it this way: Haven't you ever been at a grocery store or a move or something and there's a kid screaming or misbehaving somehow and the parents clearly don't know how to deal with it and it's irritating and possibly ruining your shopping/movie experience? That's how most kids at weddings are to me, but again, it's because I'm not close with them.  At this point in my life, most kids that make any noise = that annoying brat at the grocery store. However, 2 of my friends are pregnant at the moment, so maybe they'll have normal kids and my maternal instinct will finally kick in

temerityjane

I'm sorry, Nugget, I didn't mean you, but I'm sure you've seen the posts that have popped up here from time to time, about child haters or selfish brides with regards to children.

crazycatladyk

We're inviting kids because that's just how it's done in my family - the more the merrier. There aren't that many, and they're generally good kids so it's no big deal. Yes, there will be alcohol and yes, there will be craziness, but then that's how family reunions are too. The kids'll deal. I wouldn't go with a caterer that would charge us full food & bar price for children (huuuuuge rip off IMHO) so that's not an issue; I won't let it be one. No half-price for kids? No contract!

betrothed123

We only invited children who were close family.  My H and I don't ever want kids, and don't particularly like them.  Our venue also was going to charge us full-price (alcohol included) for each child.  If I'm not fond of children, and I'm going to have to pay full-price for them anyway, why bother inviting them?  If our guests didn't want to find a sitter they could have declined the invite.I don't understand why some folks are so insistant that I invite people I dislike to a party I am hosting.  I didn't hurt anyone by not inviting kids, especially not those that post on the knot, so I don't get why you care who was invited to anyone else's wedding.

ggmae

We had two 8 year olds, two 4 year olds, and a 3-month old at the wedding and all was well. They behaved like little angels and played with the toys I gave them in their kid pails the entire reception. No one cried, no on screamed, no one threw food. It was a good time. I personally don't have a problem with children at weddings, but I know that others do and some even have horror stories to share.

PiperS

only our neices and nephews are invited. there are 9 of them ages 16, 14, 10, 8, 6, 5, and 2. only the 16 and 14 year old are staying the whole time. the other 7 are being picked up because i want their parents to haev a good time. I was at a wedding saturday and i watched FBIL and his wife chase their kids the whole time. I want them to haev fun and relax at our wedding. i love children but i want our wedding to be a party for adults only.