Oh crikey what’s the etiquette here?

[Whatatoodoodle]

DS is turning 12 over half term and we’d said he could have a few friends over for an evening in half term (will be less than 6 people in the house etc etc).
He wanted to invite his best friend from primary plus 2 new high school friends. I also asked him to invite another friend from primary who has been a bit left out of new high school friendships and he was happy to do this.

But now it turns out he’s left it too late and the 2 new friends can’t make the date.
They can do the day before but the old, left out friend can’t.

Now wishing I hadn’t asked him to invite the extra one! Do we have 2 separate gatherings or suck up the fact that the others can’t make it and stick to the original date?

I’m going to say two separate! Why not eh, it’s a crap year and he’ll have limited numbers so stretch it out - explain to the parents why (i.e. those are the people he wanted to celebrate with but not everyone could make the same date).

Is there not maybe a third date which will work for all?
Also (and I hate to be “that” person) if you go into tier 2 any indoor gathering isn’t allowed - not judging but maybe the other parents won’t agree to it.

I’d do 2 separate I think.

I'd do two separate ones.

Two separate celebrations. It's been a shit year, string it out as long as possible
It means two cakes too , every cloud 'n all that

2 separate visits.

3rd date or original date only.

You can't go for the dare the pushed out friend cant make!

And remember for next time, 'no good deed goes unpunished.

Two dates. Two cakes.

Is one date his actual birthday and one a weekend date, as lots of people do that with a weekday birthday. I still do, spans it out longer! Can he invite some other friends both dates to get his full allocation of people re Covid? 🥳 🎂 🎈 🎁

2 separate. With 5 kids there, you can only have you in the house too so seems better to have less of them?

Original date and then a separate get together with the other 2 on the day they can do it.

2 separate it is. And yes if we go into tier 2 it will have to be cancelled or swapped to a park meet up instead