three years later..party etiquette begins

Close to three years has past since i last updated my blog. I'm going to guess if I looked into it, my facebook account would have been opened right around the same frame. For those who actually still read blogs, in particular mine, I apologize. You'd think I'd schedule time out of my day to keep up with it. Cause everyone knows me, I'm pretty lazy and enjoy sitting around doing nothing so I might as well have been updating my blog! I think I've made my point, I'm sorry for abandoning what was once something I enjoyed. Come to think of it, there are a lot of things I've abandoned that I used to enjoy. Sleeping for instance. Eating in peace. Having money to buy myself whatever I wanted when the urge hit me. Now it's toys, kids clothes, sports equipment, video games and birthday presents.

One of my last blogs was titled play dates and parties, the life of a toddler. Three years later, my children, now four ( almost) and five, have a busier social calendar than I do. From the end of November to the end of December, the boys had seven parties to go to, not including class parties, Christmas concerts and daycare. For each of these parties, one is required to purchase a gift, and of course, there could be a world-class meltdown if you pick it out and don't let them pick it out for their friend. Once we're at the store and they've been threatened within an inch of their lives should they throw a fit or ask for something for themselves, my guilty conscience kicks in when I see what they have to choose from for less than 10$. CRAP. Crap is what you can buy for 10$ these days. And my kids don't understand that big fancy monster trucks are not 10$. I used to try and exercise some respect when choosing gifts for others kids, until I had my son's 5th birthday party. There were more small gifts with a million pieces in them, plastic choke-yourself out, mess-making use once and dispose of type toys than I could shake a stick at. It looked like the dollar store exploded on my basement floor. At that point it was obvious that others weren't perplexed with the same gift giving issues that I was.

Another issue once faces with youngsters birthday parties are the uninvited guests. One wouldn't think it's common for there to be a "wedding crashers" type of guest at a 4 yr old or 5yr old's party, but guess what? There is!!
At my son's party, we did a Halloween trick or treating theme. We invited 12 kids, with my two that made 14. Once woman arrived and her daughter wanted to stay as well. She insisted I not go to any trouble for the child who wasn't on the invite list. This was fine, the little girl was in David's class and i know her mother to be sensible enough that I wouldn't have to entertain her. The party crashers arrive, with their daughter who is invited, and their son, who is three years older, had a broken arm and fully participated in all the activities and took charge and ordered the younger kids around. The parents stood idly around, suggesting some of the activities weren't suitable for their son, who had a broken arm. Here's a thought -stay the hell home with your son who wasn't invited to the party. I thought maybe this was an isolated instance, but then thought back to last year, where we carved pumpkins as an activity,Trevor had to carve an extra pumpkin, and I had to quickly make up an extra loot bag. Then at three other parties that took place this fall , same thing, the whole fam damily show up. Parties where you rent space for activities aren't cheap either - 10-15$ a kid. I've overheard rumblings from other parents on this subject and those, in my opinion with any sense, drop their kids off and enjoy a couple of hours to themselves. So unless your child demands you stick around to hold their hand throughout the party- leave and take any other non-invited children with you.

Those are my thoughts on non-invited birthday party guests. I'll probably get branded as the mother-bitch of child birthday parties, but I bet there are many others who share my sentiments. I plan to craft something to put on invitations for the next parties....I'll post it once I figure out what I'm going to say. Stay tuned. I promise it won't be another three years.