A lot of time, and even more money, goes into kids birthday parties. I spent a lot of time finding the best jungle themed birthday decorations, ordered a custom cake, booked Gymboree as the venue, bought numerous drinks and snacks and ordered WAY too much food from Pizza Hut. I tend to go overboard on everything I do and the birthday party probably cost me $700-800 by the time I was done. So when 5 adults and 3 kids cancelled the day of (two people a couple hours before and everyone else AFTER the party started) it is infuriating! That is a lot of people to pay for meals for and have them no-show. I have no problem with people cancelling the day before but any later than that I just have no patience for when dinner is involved. For the Americans out there...how do you do it?!?! That would definitely be a culture shock for me if I moved to the US where, as I understand it, RSVP's usually aren't done.
Besides that, the birthday party went amazing. Connor's favorite teacher ran the class, my best friend ran around helping ensure everything was organized and remained on time and I think all the kids (that did attend) had a blast. I have to say that I truly love kids birthday parties! The look on Connor's face as people sang to him and his enjoyment and "wow, wow, wow" over the presents was priceless. So, regardless of my complaining, it was a success!
The problem is that even with attendance mishaps...I'm already thinking about what I can do for next year...
I'm so glad Connor had a wonderful birthday celebration!
ReplyDeleteThere's no explanation for flaky people! I'm American, and I still found it appalling that people didn't R.S.V.P. for my baby shower -- the host and I had to actually call people and ask if they were coming! (That's rude in any culture, if you ask me.) Additionally, I had no shows on the day of - and again, I had to call nearly all of them and ask why they didn't show up! (I was feeling gutsy! lol)
Maybe next year you could either plan a pot-luck event where people are responsible for bringing something... OR... you could just anticipate a certain percentage of guests not showing up and order/buy less.
I'm sure there are other cultures that don't RSVP as well...it's just something that I've encountered with American friends before and had many discussions on(wasn't picking on Americans!). We lived overseas when I was little and all our friends were from the American army base. My mom was hosting a big birhtday for my brother (about 9 at the time) and only 1 of the kids showed up...it was sad. Luckily, this was just a few guests and it just rubbed me the wrong way. Since then all of them have appologized and brought presents over for Connor. I just got a text message now from a girl that appologized and said she just left a present for Connor on the steps. So I'm not feeling so wound up about it anymore :-).
DeleteI really am excited to hear how the labor and everything goes for you! I had a hard first few months so if there is ANYTHING that I can do please email me!