10 Tips

I want every parent to be able to have a successful dance party for their kid. These are 10 tips to help you.

Bring the energy

Your kids can feel your energy and excitement when you are doing something for them. If you're into it and having as much fun as they are, they are going to be stoked for more. If you're annoyed, upset, doing other things, the dance party dwindles and disappears. This is true for adults also, I was at a bar that had a dance party and the DJ slouched in the chair for the time we were there. A few good songs got the audience going, but it was a struggle. Bring energy to the dance party and your kids will double it back to you.

2. Be Flexible

Every dance party isn't going to be a massive success. Don't ever let your kids know how much work you've put into it. Start small and let them have the experience. If they aren't into it one night after a song or two, wrap up and move onto something else.

If they start liking it more, keep growing like I did. You might start with a dance party and stumble into something your kids love even more. That's a great thing. Celebrate it and celebrate them.

One of my most memorable dance parties turned into a game of "hide and seek" midway through.

3. Most Kids don't request "Dance Music"

I learned this the first time I accepted requests from kids. We had friends staying with us and they had been listening to Spotify. Their son knew a ton of music and wanted it for the dance party that we were doing at the end of their stay. I blindly pulled it and added it to my playlists. It fell flat, we're talking about clear the dance floor. I felt horrible for the kid who asked to hear the song when my wife yelled out "Play something else".

There is a massive difference between "Music I like" and "Music I will dance to". That goes for kids to. See more on my Finding Music page where I go into this in more detail

4. Hearing Protection

This is part of the essentials, but I'm repeating it here. Have good hearing protection for everyone involved. At the earliest stage, with a single Bluetooth speaker and room to get further away, it may be excessive, but normalizing hearing protection early on is a good thing. It lets them know they can ask at any time (even when it's not a dance party) to have hearing protection.

We had 15 kids dancing in our driveway all wearing kid sized earplugs and it was amazing. I knew I could turn the volume up louder because everyone was wearing hearing protection. "

5. Bring Friends

This might not be the best for the first time you try out a dance party, but definitely by the 3rd, invite your kids friends to join them. For the How I met your mother fans, as Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) puts it "Whatever you do in this life is not legendary unless you're friends are their to see it". The dance parties become way more legendary when they see their friends and can talk about how great it was the next day at school.

6. Make Time to Setup

Especially when I was first making this happen, it took a lot more to setup and some time to tear down as well at the end. Over time, I became much quicker at the process and could get a dance party setup in 5 minutes (See my tip about battery packs on the Dance Lights page). Give yourself time to get setup and ready though. 5 minutes waiting for you to get setup is painful vs spending that 5 minutes playing games, wrapping up homework, or talking to a friend is much better.

7. Have Props

Glow sticks are on the Essentials page for a reason, but let your kids find the props to bring. Masks and Capes have been a regular feature of our dance parties over the years. Costumes of Turtles, Ninjas, and Legos have been a part of it also. The less formal the dance party is, the more fun the kids have. For the smaller parties especially, whatever they want to dress up as makes it more fun for them.

8. Appropriate Expectations

You're not throwing a dance party for 10,000 screaming fans, you're throwing it for your kids. Don't expect it to go perfectly. My early dance parties were marked by roughly cut music tracks, songs they didn't like, and distractions galore. I rolled with it and got better and better at delivering an experience my kids liked.

9. Have enough space

10. Set a limit

Especially early on, have a limit on how long it will last. "Always leave them wanting more" if you will. Once you get a bit of practice, a 20 minute dance party is pretty easy, but if you let it keep going until it gets boring, then your kids won't want it again. Ending because it's time to read before bedtime (make sure to have something between the dance party and bed) is a great reason to wrap up and you can always do another one tomorrow.

Cover Photo by Ardian Lumi on Unsplash

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