Would you...

[Rosehip]

skip an afternoon of preschool for the kids (ages 3 & 5) to attend a bday party? They cannot do both - it's either or. Just curious.

[BellinghamCrunchie]

yes

[nextcommercial]

I would. A party is very important to the birthday child, and that child deserves to have friends who would miss preschool to celebrate with him or her.

[pianojazzgirl]

yes!

[NiteNicole]

Yes!

[Rosehip]

I had already RSVP'd yes I actually wasn't even thinking about school when I said we'd come, and then realized, but figured we'd just go anyway...

[Grace and Granola]

yes!

[mariekitt24]

yep.

[TheSneetch]

I wouldn't even hesitate.

[MtBikeLover]

Absolutely!

[meemee]

heck my dd misses school on days when its too nice to go in. when she was in her new school in first grade and really disappointed that first grade wasnt funner than K, we skipped school once a week to do something fun. by the end of two months she didnt ask for any more days off. dd has anxiety so i pay close attention to what she wants.

so a day at ps. oh ABSOLUTELY!!!!

[hermionesmum]

I'd need to weigh up the precedent I was setting about skipping school with how close and significant the friend having the party was. A very good friend, absolutely but playgroup acquaintance probably not.

[RockStarMom]

I would leave it up to my daughter.

[AllisonR]

Sure. My son starts proper school next year, so we won't be able to just skip! Take advantage of opportunities while you can.

[cedoreilly]

Once, probably yes. I pulled my DS2 from pre-school last year to go to the gymnastics Christmas party at the Y. It was his CHristmas party at school too which involved making a gingerbread house with your parents and my babysitter cancelled and I so did not want to try to make a gingerbread house with DS2 while chasing DS3 (he was going to be able to do it again the next week with his father).

[amma_mama]

Assuming that the child is not expected to take college entrance exams that day then I would have them skip school and enjoy the party. Seriously, though, it is pre-K. Even in K I would do it if it is a close friend or relative. After that, though, as school becomes more formal, I would be more hesitant to pull the child out for social events, including an extended vacation or weekend.

[limabean]

Yes, absolutely. It's not like the school loses money if your kid is absent, and I wasn't really relying on preschool for academic stuff, so I didn't care if DS missed some days to do other stuff. Now that he's in kindergarten, we're careful to plan our outings/vacations around school (although I do and will always allow the kids to miss a couple of days for a family vacation), but in preschool? Nah, we skipped school if we had something else planned. It didn't happen a ton, but I certainly didn't stress about it if it did happen.

[redpajama]

Yes, for sure.

[LynnS6]

Yes.

We skipped 3 days of elementary school to go on a family vacation. Relationships are worth investing in.

[noobmom]

Yes, assuming this is a fairly good friend and not a casual friend, as another PP said.