Organising a birthday party
My son is turning 7 next week. We had his party today. It was planned in a week. Not because I am disorganised but because newsletters came home in the last week that meant the next few saturdays were to be spent on sports grounds. Add to that that I had, I cant plan anything concrete on the weekends they may go to their dad! So suddenly it left me one day – the 16th.Invites were made, printed and sent out, cake design was decided on and ordered, venue booked, all within a day. My organisational skills were in overdrive. It really was impressive since I had just written my last exam the morning all this happened. For the first time in the history of my kids being at their school I received a 40% rsvp rate. This is usually unheard of. If I am lucky I get 3 parents replying and those 3 are moms who I have daily contact with. So, I had numbers by Friday. It was great! Monday evening I finished icing the cake – it really came out really really well. I was very proud of myself and did feel my mommy wings grow a little bigger.
Then Tuesday rolled around and it was lift off. We arrived at the venue, which was our local Spur, a little early . You know, just to make sure everything was in order. My plan was to order by 13h30. Well by 13h45 when only half of the kids who had replied had actually rocked up I had to order and get the show on the road. Now it all went down well. Cameron had a blast and was happy. All in all it was a success. But! What annoys me about birthday parties is peoples lack of common decency in replying with a simple yes/no by the date stipulated. How hard is that? And if you say yes then show up. If you know you cant make it for some reason then let me know. Don’t just leave it and make me explain to my kid why his friends aren’t there. Not on!
Parties are very big in my life. As a single parent I have to budget carefully for them. My kids birthdays are 2 months apart so it takes careful budgeting. I generally steer clear of venues that make me pay per child and charge me regardless of the child showing up. I just cant afford to pay for 20 kids when only 10 actually arrived. Money aside my kids gets excited about having his buddies there and if they dont then he is disappointed.Next time you get an invite, check your calendar and then rsvp. All it costs you is an sms.
Posted by :Laura-kim from Harrassed Mom
I can’t agree with you more. What is it with other parents. Its like no one has time to care enough about keeping arrangements or commitments. When are they important enough then? Like with your son, its so hard to explain because its not really fair.
You have no idea how many times I have thought your exact same thoughts, but get too worked up about other parents disrespect and irresponsibility when I tried to put pen to paper. Where do these parents get off! What makes them believe that their disrespect is socially acceptable? What bothers me more is, is this rudeness being rubbed off on their innocent children. I do believe though that these parents are more interested in their selfish selves than the social interaction of their children. There I go getting worked up again, but name calling is all I can resort to because these socially retarded parents are too pitiful to even engage words with and don’t even get me started on some parents conduct in school parking lots!
A parent who got me really worked up this year is the one who confirmed first, then asked if I could pick up her daughter to bring her to the party. I couldn’t grasp what she thought would happen to the other kids I’m supposed to meet at the venue, if I was playing taxi driver to her kid. And she lives less than 10 minutes from the venue, so we’re not talking about anything onerous. When I said no, she said her then she was afraid her daughter wouldn’t be able to make it; has other plans. Huh!
I totally agree with you. A simple yes/no would be fabulous.
Parents know how much goes into planning a child’s party so it is very selfish not to rsvp in time … You’ll find it’s those same parents who don’t rsvp or do and don’t show up, that will probably make a major fuss if they got that treatment from other parents.