“I think we have about five more years where we can get away with this,” she said, laughing.
She said it was important to her that her children, who are 3 and 4, had the countdown experience. “To me, it’s about starting the new year right,” she said. “Especially the 4-year-old, she knows what is happening. Her last day of school, she told her teachers, ‘See you next year.’ She gets the concept of one year ending and the next one starting, and that it is special.”
Ever since Kate Sullivan became the kids leader at the Westchester location of Life Time, a fitness center, she has noticed that children often want to do what the adults do. “These kiddos see their parents do these things, and they want to get involved,” she said. “We started doing these sports and agility classes for kids that are similar to what their parents are doing upstairs.”
So this year’s New Year’s Eve party, from 5 to 8 p.m., will include rock climbing, glow sticks, arts and crafts, a ball drop and, of course, a countdown.
Jessica Kirby, 34, a Pilates instructor in White Plains, N.Y., said that her children — ages 10, 8, 5 and 3 — were excited to attend the event. “All their friends are there, and I know they want to get the party in on the holiday,” she said. But she also knows the experience may be less satisfying for her oldest one. “My oldest daughter has already told me she wants to stay up until midnight and party,” she said. “If she wants to try, she totally can, but I have a feeling she’s going to end up asleep on the couch.”