My clients in Singapore have been asking me, “Is it okay to have a birthday party given the corona virus situation?” Let us analyse the facts and give you 5 tips on how to carry on your parties without disappointing your child.
In general, with the cases of the coronavirus of the cruise ship and the conference in Singapore, the virus seemed to be spread when there is close proximity in an enclose space, especially with strangers! In other words, a birthday party is much safer than places like supermarket in which everyone is rushing for groceries.
Based on the data, there are also hardly any children infected with the coronavirus. The chances of children passing the virus to another is also lower too. (Click to read the article)
On that note, if everyone remembers, during the H1N1, though it reached the level of Dorscon orange, there wasn’t any rush to buy supplies like this time! Then if so, what is causing this fear and panic? During SARS, there isn’t social media. During H1N1, whatsapp group are unheard of. Social media has raised awareness but also caused a lot of unnecessary anxiety causing cyclic effects on the people here. This same fear is causing some events to be postpone or cancelled as well. My take is that life can still go on if you take the right measures.
Having been through SARS in 2003 and H1N1 in 2009, this is my take on the situation is that most events can go on if enough precautions are made. In fact, Ministry of Trade and Industry (A ministry of the Government of Singapore that directs the formulation of policies related to the development of trade and industry) come out with a statement saying that events with less than 1000 people can go on. In other words, birthday parties can go on!
As I am writing this, we just went through 4 parties last weekend. Out of the 4, 3 had very healthy turnout. (One the families wanted to keep the celebration small.)
1. Do your birthday party in a big space or outdoor space.
If you analyse all the cases of coronavirus, the patients contacted the virus during a confine space like a taxi or in close proximity. If you are doing your party at a small function room, you can consider having some parts of the party outdoor. For instance, you can have the magic show in the function room, while the food and tables for eating can be outside.
There are many activities which you can book if you celebrate outdoors. For instance, we just had a booking for our treasure hunt game for a gathering at Botanical Gardens! This is a perfect activity for outdoor activities.
2. Keep your party small.
3. Keep the party within your same group of friends.
4. Take precautions.
Children are after all children. It is much more difficult to tell kids about good hygiene than adults.The former tend to skip good cleaning habits unless told to do so. Although the following precautions seem cliche, it can be overlooked easily if you are very busy:
- Take temperatures – Although this is not a sure way to detect the virus, at least this is the first line of defence if your guests are sick. Prepare some masks just in case too. Activate your relatives to help if necessary.
- Remind children to wash their hands before they eat, after going to the playground, before they eat the cake, etc.
- Have a bottle of hand sanitiser ready for children.
- Sanitise and clean the floor if they are sitting on the ground for games or performances.
- Put the candles on an individual slice of cake – We see so many cases of saliva, from not only the birthday child as well as other kids eager to blow the candles, flying onto the cake. So by having the blowing of candle on an individual slice, it reduces the virus from flying onto the cake and others eating it. Use the full cake only for phototaking and eating later.
5. Keep your child at home if unwell.
Obviously right? Check their temperatures before leaving home. Although children would be disappointment if they miss out all the fun, it is a good chance to educate them about hygiene and being considerate.
Plan something fun for them to do at home like learning magic and fossil digging.
Of course, if your family has been to China, on LOA or just having some flu, talk to your party planner to postpone your party. So far, we have given an option for our clients to push back their celebrations up to 1 years later if they choose to do so.
What we have done at Mr Bottle’s Kids Party is to ensure that all our staff have not gone to China in the past 14 days and that they do not show any flu symptoms. We also issue masks to them if necessary.
Lastly, stay healthy. Keeping them at home won’t help in their immunity system. Here’s what you should do:
- Give them a bit of sun with outdoor activities like treasure hunt.
- Exercise with them.
- Provide them with healthy food.
- keep them happy.
These are more effective in keeping the virus away than hiding them from your friends.
