SO MANY people looking for 13th Birthday Party Ideas…
I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. The 13th birthday party is a tough one. They’re definitely no longer children, but they’re not yet adults either. And that means the 13th birthday party has to be different from what they’ve had in the past, but still age appropriate and sufficiently engaging to snuff out those group behavior dynamics we parents all want to avoid.
Put just about any group of 13 year old together and you get social posturing - in spades. Every action, every word, is designed to impress the group, to raise the social standing or change the existing social order. It’s not a bad thing in and of itself- it’s what they’re supposed to be doing at this age: finding out who they are and where they fit. It just makes for some very awkward moments and can be very discomforting for parents to watch.
Certain situations, like the classroom, are recognized by the kids to be relatively ’safe-zones’ where their actions don’t so much impact their social world. But a party- that’s the ultimate test for these kids.
Structure your young teen birthday party to provide a similarly ’safe-zone’, and the pressure’s off. And for many kids, that’s a relief.
It turns out the Medieval Madness murder-mystery provides just such structure. As a role-playing party, the kids get to be somebody else for the duration - so they’re free to act their parts with minimal social repercussions. It’s all part of the game- it’s not for real.
They find the murder mystery game to be terrific fun, and it keeps them engaged in the game for the entire time, so no loose cannons making problems.
Look no further for the best of all 13th birthday party ideas. It’s fun, it keeps ‘em in line, it’s cheap and easy to host, and gives the kids a chance to try on a new persona for a few hours without social consequences.
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November 9th, 2008 at 10:41 am
We used the Medieval Murder Mystery package for our son’s 13th birthday. It was such a great success! I think the best moment for me (as his step-mother) was to hear him exclaim “This is the BEST party I’ve ever had in my WHOLE LIFE!!” when he didn’t even know I could hear him!
The only changes I would make would be to allow customers to edit more. I had a number of guests between the numbers allowed and I had to change some girls to boys and boys to girls. So I had to white out and write in his/her and change some of the characters so I could have the right amount without anyone having to play off a character who wasn’t there. [BPGL Note: ANYTHING an be edited in the zipped WORD file download package and all users can change from the un-editable .pdf download package if they so choose.]
Other than that - this truly was a wonderful experience!!