Birthday Party Etiquette

(© Grandma George)

The reasons for me not posting for a few days would be instantly evident if you popped your head in our front door right now.

It's the school holidays.

In Australia, the school year ends somewhere around the second or third week of December (it differs between the states - my state finishes up mid-December). We have our summer holidays stretching out over Christmas and New Year's and through until a few days before the end of January (again, there could be some minor discrepancies in the other states), for about a six-week break. In my state, we have a four term school year - terms are roughly 10 weeks each followed by a 2 week break (except, of course, after Term 4, when the 6 week break comes).

School let out here on Thursday. Four days later and the kids are already alternating between the 'Thick As Thieves' and 'You Are Not My Brother!' mentalities. And we haven't even hit the flip-side of Christmas yet!

In other news, Hubs is in his final week of his 'big deal' training at work, the part that strongly 'suggests' (ie, you have no choice) living at the training facility for the week. In reality, it's only four days and three nights, but at 2am last night when I couldn't sleep, I was brought back to the 'old days' where his nightshifts would often see me unable to sleep just because he wasn't immediately to hand. The lovely little mite text-messaged me at 7am this morning to tell me his first day yesterday had gone well. There's nothing like the shrill ear-piercing beep of an SMS alert from the phone you've placed on your beloved's empty pillow to wake you up!

Something is playing on my mind this morning though. Tomorrow is my daughter's 6th birthday. Because this time of the year is necessarily crazy with the end of school activities, Christmas concerts, class parties and so on, I went the easy route for a 'party' for her. We did the same thing last year - invited her friends around for a Christmas movie, pizza and popcorn and just hanging out. I think I may have thrown together some basic party bags but that was about the extent of it. I thought I was being clever - it's six days before Christmas for pete's sake and I know from a mum's perspective the last thing I want to think about right after school breaks out and I'm crazy-busy with Christmas preparations is another child's birthday party to attend. The concept went down quite well last year.

This year, it doesn't appear to hold the same appeal.

Oh, my daughter is totally thrilled with the idea. She just wants her friends around. But the parents don't appear to be on board. Okay, so I probably didn't give anywhere near enough notice - I handed out invitations on Thursday and the 'proxy party' is Wednesday night. But I figured the informal nature of the gathering kind of explained that, as did the whole 'everyone's just as busy as I am, they're gonna appreciate the low-keyness' thing. Um, perhaps not.

I had an RSVP for Monday (yesterday). When I gave the invitations out on Thurday I had one mum tell me right off her daughter would be there and I'm not exactly sure but I'm assuming a second little girl and boy (twins) are coming just from the attitude of the mum on the day. I invited a total of 6 kids that day (still have to ring friend - mother of another set of twins - today, but the short notice won't bother her). Of the 5 that remained (one acceptance on the day), I didn't get a single RSVP by the due date. Even assuming the first set of twins can attend that's still three people who didn't bother to give me a call, two of which are my daughter's best friends!

I'm not sure whether I should be offended at this or not. On one hand I do realise this was incredibly short notice (no matter what kind of party it was going to be) and that - *ahem* - I'm not exactly known for my prompt RSVP-ing skills either (which are totally going to change after this!) On the other hand, auuugh!!! I mean, it's not like I have to cater - I can just add another pizza or two to our order on Wednesday night. But in terms of things like getting enough gear for the party bags? They're not going to be elaborate but I'd still like to know how many of them I have to make up! At this rate I think I'm going to have to just make all 11 (8 invites, 3 of my own kids) and then if folks don't show up, use the leftover stuff for our Lucky Box (ten ticks on their Values Chart gets them a choice of rewards, one of which is choosing something from this box of markers, crayons, stickers, small toys etc).

So the party is tomorrow night. I really hope this doesn't end up being one of those horrid, torturous childhood memories for my daughter - you know, the type - "When I was six, nobody turned up to my birthday party!!!" But what can I do? Sigh.

Cheers,
Lizzie