A dad planning his son’s 13th birthday thought he had landed on a party idea that would be an instant hit: sports at the local rec center in the morning, then a video game tournament afterward.
There was just one problem. His house barely has any gaming setup to work with.
That left him stuck on a surprisingly awkward question: is it rude to ask invited kids to bring their own consoles if the whole activity depends on them?
The Party Idea Sounded Perfect Until He Realized They Did Not Actually Have the Gear
In his post on Reddit, the dad explained that his son wants a video game tournament after the sports portion of the birthday celebration. But unlike a lot of families with teenagers, they do not really have a gaming setup at home.
The only system in the house is an old Wii that came from the boy’s grandparents after they got bored with it. It has games like Wii Sports and Mario, but nothing close to the kind of setup his son and his friends are actually into now.
Most of the kids in his son’s group have Nintendo Switches, which made the dad wonder if he should simply mention on the invitation that friends are welcome to bring theirs.
On the surface, it seems practical enough. But the more he and his wife thought about it, the stranger it felt.
He Could Not Decide if This Was a Normal Kid Thing or a Party Hosting Fail
What really bothered him was not the gaming itself. It was the feeling that he might be throwing a party where the guests would be expected to provide the main attraction.
That was the comparison he kept coming back to.
Was this like telling everyone to bring their bikes so they could all ride around the neighborhood together? Or was it more like hosting a party and asking the guests to bring the food, speakers, and entire sound system because otherwise the event could not happen?
That is what made the whole thing feel potentially “icky” to him.
He even admitted that part of the discomfort came from knowing they would be contributing almost none of the actual equipment beyond a TV. If the tournament happened, it would be because other families supplied nearly everything.
The Biggest Issue Was Not Just Manners but What Happens if No One Brings Anything
That tension is what made the question so relatable. It was not only about whether asking was polite. It was also about whether it was risky to build the party around something the hosts could not really guarantee.
If no one wanted to bring a console, or if parents were uncomfortable sending an expensive device to someone else’s house, the whole plan could fall apart fast.
There was also the practical side. Even if kids did bring Switches, someone would still need docks, cords, controllers, and multiplayer games that actually work for a tournament setup. Suddenly, what sounded like a simple party theme started looking like a lot of moving pieces.
A Lot of Parents Thought the Idea Was Fine if the Kids Handled It Like Kids Usually Do
In the comments, plenty of people said this was basically just a modern version of a LAN party and did not sound weird at all. Some said their own kids bring consoles to friends’ houses all the time, especially Switches, since they are designed to travel.
But even a lot of the people who liked the idea thought the framing mattered.
The most common reaction was that it would feel more natural if the son asked his own friends directly rather than having the parents formally request expensive gaming gear on the invitation. That made it feel less like adults asking guests to supply the entertainment and more like a group of teens deciding together how they want to hang out.
Others still felt uneasy, mostly because consoles are expensive and because a party should not depend entirely on what guests bring through the door.
The strongest middle-ground take was simple: the gaming tournament can be part of the fun, but it probably works best if it is treated like an optional add-on rather than the entire party resting on other people’s Switches.
More from Decluttering Mom: