My son (4) has tripped off to his best pal’s birthday party today at a play centre.
The parents have taken a small group in their car, picked Jacob up this morning and will be dropping him back some time this afternoon.
I know the family well so not only do I trust them to take him off for the day, I also LOVE them for it so that I can be at work!
I sent my son packing with a pressie, a drink and some chocolate sweets for the other boys, and a reminder about saying please and thank you.
That’s all I needed to do, right?
A part of me wondered if I should have given him some money too and ran it by my mum this morning.
‘Not at all’, says she, ‘they wouldn’t expect it. (and she’s right, they wouldn’t) But did you hear on the radio about the woman who charged a kid for NOT showing up to a birthday party? She demanded the tenner back’.
Well, we laughed, because people are just a bit bonkers sometimes, right?
But it reminded me of other stories – of a friend whose husband had to accompany his then four-year-old to a party at a play centre, but whose two-year-old was forbidden from joining in on having any chicken nuggets and chips when it came to lunch time ‘because they hadn’t paid’.
I mean, really, a two-year-old might get through one nugget and a couple of chips, wouldn’t they? They’d hardly be in for a three-course meal so what was the big deal?
Why are people so uptight about this kind of thing? Is it just the money, or is it the presumption that it’s ok to bring other kids along, that gets people so worked up?
Surely if you’re going to the hassle of throwing a kid’s party, then it doesn’t really matter if you have eight as opposed to ten?
Does it?
I’m not entirely sure as we have had all of Jacob’s birthday parties at home so far and have yet to tackle the ‘Party At A Play Centre’ idea but I can imagine that it’s just bonkers one way or the other.
Hopefully, we’ll be chill and won’t end up like this mum who saw fit to sue a five-year-old boy for his no-show. EEK!
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