Birthday parties no show

You need to get used to it. It's how things are today. People simpy don't care anymore.

Rude op. My kids older now but it used be 16 euro a head at parties/playcentres. Adds up. Did you whatsapp or invites in schoolbag. They should have replied

Just ask?
I did this and was mortified, missing child's best friend's birthday! My head was elsewhere and I forgot to check the calendar that morning. DC didn't mention anything either.

How many children came in the end then?

It’s really rude and I don’t think they should get away with it so I would say ‘what happened? You said you were coming and my child was disappointed.’
Just be straight, don’t make excuses for her.

School Mums can be weird but sometimes it’s just best to give a little smile and move on. There’s a Mum in my daughter’s class who has just straight up ignored 2 birthday invitations in a row. My daughter’s friends also have parties around the same time and her child attended those. The strange thing is, she will not leave me alone at parties, it’s like she’s stuck to me, she is quite a nervous person and I’m generally quite chatty. She remarks how sweet my daughter is and how much her child loves mine. Obviously I won’t invite for a third time next time, and I’d never mention it to her. Completely baffling though, but ultimately it’s not my concern.

I’d have to text her and ask why she didn’t show. I’d just say something like “X was expecting Y to turn up at the weekend, did something happen?”. She probably just forgot but that’s a poor excuse nowadays with google calendar.

I completely forgot one party for my DDs best friend once. Her Mum messaged to check we were OK, I was completely mortified and went over with her present and apologised. It was a few years ago and she still talks to me so I think I was forgiven. On the other hand DD had a friend who’s Mum would regularly say they were going and then not show up. I suspect she just couldn’t be bothered but always had some elaborate excuse. You won’t really know unless you ask.

We have only ever done small parties and when someone didn't turn up to my son's one year I messaged them to ask whether they were on there way. It was an activity so I guess that made it easier to ask whether they were on the way to the party as the activity leader would wait if they were running late.
They did apologise when they arrived, they had another party that afternoon and had forgotten the morning one too.

I completely forgot about a party once. Maybe they did too.

It is rude and flaky but unfortunately also quite common. My kids are older now but st their birthday parties there was always at least one no show, often two. (I also confess to almost missing one as I wrote the wrong day on the calendar, thankfully the mum messaged me to see if we were coming and we were able to get there for the last hour and take the present, I was embarrassed but very grateful!)

The empty spaces were often taken by parents who brought uninvited siblings, which is quite cheeky but in some ways good as the space wasn't wasted. I've noticed the worst flaky/cheeky parents are those who never bother hosting parties themselves, so I think they don't realise how much inconvenience and disappointment it can cause.

Just a shame for your daughter that it was her bestie as she really noticed that!

At 6 there are a lot of parties. I've forgotten one or two in my time, and felt mortified. Normally my kids remember very last minute, but i can't say we've never missed one. I agree it's always a good idea to send out a "look forward to seeing you Saturday" whatsapp. You can use the pretense of asking about allergies or something if you feel awkward.

Awww, I was hoping at least 8 or 9 had come. I hope she had a lovely time anyway. xx Sorry her BFF didn't show.

So you don’t accept the invite.

Not the best way to deal with the mum of your child’s best friend. “My child was disappointed” is a crappy comment.

God, we're all stuck to our phones yet no fucker knows how to use the calendar feature, it would seem! Or even a plain old fashioned wall calendar. I use both. So many people say to me "you are GOOD, you always remember birthdays!" No, I just write it down, and GASP, you can even do this as a recurring event for birthdays!

No, op, of course you're not being unreasonable! It's disgustingly rude.

It's rude to say yes and then not show up without any kind of message. There's platy of excuses they could make up - car trouble, sick bug etc if they feel unable to say the real reason. Maybe they just forgot?

There's one kid in DCs class whose mum accepts class party invitations on the class Whatsapp then cancels about 48h before, for pretty much every single party. Different reason each time. No idea what's going on there.

I didn't get the invite for one. The Mum messaged me on the day to check if we were coming. I had no idea about it at all. It was too short notice so I apologised but made it clear that was the first I had heard about it.

Glad 2 showed and hope she had a good time.

Yes it’s very rude to do a no show for a 6 year old. But I wouldn’t make a big deal of it. They make have just forgotten and if you go in all “my kid was disappointed”, they might limit the play dates and, assuming your DH and this kid are friends, you don’t want to risk that friendship.