DD is having a bouncy castle birthday party next weekend. We've invited her whole class, a few of the other class, and 4 other friends. So far we've only got 11 coming, including DD and DS.
Out of the 29 other kids in her class, we've heard back from 9. Two can't come, one told DD he doesn't want to, one might be able to, and three of them can come but I had to text (unfortunately I don't have anybody else's number). Two others from her class, one from the other class, one neighbour and two family friends are definitely coming.
I'm sad for DD that hardly anybody can attend, but I'm also annoyed that nobody is RSVPing. I know there's still a few days to go, but we had this problem last year, and that time we only invited about 20 (venue had a max capacity). We ended up with 12, and nobody turned up without RSVPing. I had to ask parents in the playground if they got the invite, which wasn't so bad as Reception have their own playground. In Year 1 it's more of a free for all, and I'm not sure who everybody is! I hated asking parents, but I'll have to do it for DD. She did ask two kids by herself and they both said no (one did say she was sorry but she couldn't, the other just said no), she just looked so crushed.
I was wondering if it was a cultural thing, though. Out of the 30 kids in DD's class, 20 are from Asian families (mostly from India or Pakistan), 4 from Eastern Europe, and 6 are British. I read that very strict Muslim families don't celebrate birthdays, so could that be the reason? I'm not sure if any of them as especially strict, but I don't know any of them very well. I don't want to be insensitive and leave anybody out, and DD is kind hearted and wanted to invite everyone. If they can't/won't come by default, though, then it's probaby not worth it and next year we'll have to do something smaller for just a couple of friends.
If it is a cultural thing and they're never going to accept invites then that's fine. I'd just like to know, really! I'm fairly certain they all took the invites home, because the lovely TA made sure they weren't left in drawers etc. They could've lost them or not given them to their parents, I suppose.
DD is quite disheartened about it so far and I'm really hoping that just a couple more can. Her face fell when she saw the small list of who was coming, including her and her brother.