Birthday party ignorance

That’s great that your daughter enjoyed her birthday party . Just make a mental note ,that next year you will invite children that your child really knows ,and speak to the parents on a personal level. Happy Birthday to your daughter 🥳

Sounds like it went well in the end.

That sounds like a good outcome and a nice party for your dc. Nice you updated.

Hi OP, how did the party go? Did you get any more attendees?
And more importantly did you child have a lovely time?

Let us know how the party goes OP

Glad ypu got some replies.

Hope the party goes ahead OK.

And bet you'll get some extra turning up who didn't reply

Glad you got some replies at least but pretty poor show on 10 people not responding. If 5 can make the effort, I don't see why the remaining 10 cant. Hope the party goes well.

It really depends how well you know the parents…. And we’ll worth it to make connections for th see sort of things

Glad you have had done replies

Hopefully more will happen

Get all phone numbers and then can message them

Any rsvps yet?

Any news OP?

Agree 'they are invaluable' in many respects.
This still doesn't take into account the mums who whatever reason their faces just don't fit. I've seen mums in tears because she's been stone walled in WhatsApp groups so to my mind although I agree with it being helpful in many respects I also feel groups like this can be detrimental if your deemed to be not part of the cabal

Are you completely sure there is no FB group? I have 6 kids and every year someone (ok, a lot of the time it was me but other people have done a some too) have set up FB groups before reception class started and shared into the local community group saying "if your child is starting at X school in September join this group so we can all get to know each other". Do a search on FB for "School Name reception class" or similar and see if there are any groups for it.

I can't imagine not having a class FB group, they are invaluable for lots of things but especially situations like this

My parents cba with playground chitchat resulting in me being the same way. It didn't affect my childhood friendships in any way whatsoever & neither did it affect my DCs friendships when I decided to take a step back from enforced liaisons. If parents decide who their young children can be friends with & worse when its according to who their parents get along with, I find this quite sad. I have fond memories of playground friendships but in no way do I feel deprived because I like them moved on. My messsge to parents is don't stress about your child's friendships, just let them happen & take their lead.

This! I absolutely cba with all the playground chit-chat stuff, but I made an effort because it wasn't about me. My DC are in their 20s and are still close friends with the children they met when they were 5, partly because I made the effort. Some of their friends date back even further, to playgroups (where, again, I cba but did it anyway).

Funnily, I also made some lifelong friends that way, to my surprise, so it was a win-win.

Don't just write it off, OP.

I can only empathise with your situation. My sons bday party is on Saturday and I sent out over 40 invites and have only received 8 RSVPS. I was really worrying about it until another parent in his class told me last year she got 5 RSVPS but had 18 children turn up. Hope you manage to get in touch with some of them to see if any are coming it would be a shame to have to cancel

Our school will let you put a note on the classroom door as they come out saying " All those who have been invited to xxxx party on.....please rsvp by ( date) or a place won't be saved for them". It works well!
Or cancel the party and put a note on the doorsaying " All those invited
to xxxx party please note it has now been cancelled due to lack of responses'
I got sick and tired of parents not replying, the stress made me mad.My kids birthdays are 9 days apart, chasing rsvps was a nightmare and after a couple of years of it, I stopped doing parties altogether!
It's just rude of people not to reply.

You’ve had lots of replies about the party dilemma, but I also just wanted to say, I totally understand that you have no interest in getting to know the other parents yourself (I’m the same), but this isn’t about you - these first couple of years of school are when their friendships will form that will last through the whole of primary school, maybe even some lifelong friendships forged. I’m nearly 40 now and still very clearly remember when I was in primary school never getting picked for teams, never having anyone wanting to sit with me, always wondering why everyone else was having sleepovers and generally having fun outside of school together and me not being involved, and it’s because my parents didn’t make an effort for me. As uncomfortable as it may make you, as parents of young children, we need to make an effort to help them build some of these relationships

Wow, what a pickle. Not kind of other parents to at least contact and say no!

I would not recommend cancelling the party as your child will likely be looking forward to it and without any confirmative responses, you could have people show up anyway.

What you could do is wait on the day, if nobody shows up ask your child if they would like to go out to buy a toy and mcdonalds or whatever their favourite eat out place is. Don't buy any food, if they do show up, order some pizza.

Has the rsvp date passed now Op? Any replies yet?

At first I thought that these parents probably haven't seen these invites, stuck in the their bags with newsletters. However I realise that you gave them out before half term. Everyone I know, empties their kids bags during the holidays. If I haven't heard anything 3 days after the rsvp date, I'd give them a "sorry the party's cancelled due to zero confirmations" note. Hope your child has a lovely birthday. Sorry people can be ignorant arseholes, they'll soon realise their mistake when they're planning their own child's birthday!

I think its strange that nobody has replied tbh.

In my experience, there will always be one who doesn't reply - the blatantly rude parent but there's always one. But its odd if there is more than one. Are you sure the teacher handed them out? In my kid's school, kids are not allowed to give out invitations unless all the class are invited?

Its a tricky one because you will be billed for a certain amount of kids whether they turn up or not. I'd hand out another set of invitations tomorrow and scribble a note that you hadn't received any replies and were wondering if they could let you know if x was planning to attend?

Why not ask your kid to point out the kids that they wanted at the party and then approach their parent that way?