Parents not replying to party invites?

[Sleepyhead19]

I am wondering if others have this issue. We sent party invitations out at the end of term for my child’s party in mid sept. I get some might have been left in book bags/forgotten about on the fridge etc but the kids are back at school now and I feel like even if it’s a no, it’s simply polite to reply? I know my son is a nice, well liked boy so it’s not that he isn’t friends with these children.
Last year we had two kids turn up when their parents hadn’t replied so we just paid extra for them rather than turning them away but they were the only parents that hadn’t responded. This time it’s about 12. We invited the whole class so nobody was left out. There are plenty of kids coming, I just don’t want to be in the position of having kids turn up that I’m not expecting and not having enough food/cake/party bags etc.
I don’t really want to chase parents for a response but i wondered if any others had this problem and what they did? I would be mortified if I realised I hadn’t replied to a child’s invite.
Thank you!

I would send one more message to ask if they are coming or not, then I would assume not if they don’t reply. July invites for September is early and they may have forgotten so it’s a good idea to send a reminder. It’s really rude not to reply though. Especially if a party is paid on a per head basis. People need to know who is coming!

This reminds me that someone hasn’t responded to a party invitation I sent out recently, I will be following up on it!

Also reminds me that a party invitation for my DD got lost and I only realised when someone else mentioned a whole class party. The mum of the birthday child didn’t follow up the invitation and I wish she had as we never received it and it was eventually found under a shelf in school corridor

Some parents may have got them, others will have forgotten all about it.

I had an email from school last week about an event, it was last night, I totally forgot, and that’s only a week.

Summer holidays, holiday abroad, camping, etc, has all happened since, Sending a July invite may well have slipped peoples mind. Even if some said yes in July, they may well have forgotten now unless they are super organised. I’d do a reminder if I was you.

Some years ago I read a thread by someone who had the same problem so the following year the invitations were sent out without location info and said it would subsequently be sent to those who accepted the invitation.

It doesn't solve the problem of having to chase people unfortunately but at least there's no chance of people turning up who hadn't bothered to respond.

I’m surprised your school allows invites? Anyway....our school just gives us a list of names and numbers (obvs with permission) and we text the invite! Answers are usually within minutes! Works perfectly! Do you have any phone numbers? Or Facebook perhaps??

I can get my sons dad to put a message on the class WhatsApp group reminding People. I don’t want to seem pushy at the same time though. I don’t have many of the parents numbers so will have to hope most of them are on the group 😂.
There’s a girl in my sons class who always seems to have a party on the same day, around the same time so I expect some will be going to that one instead. That parent is one who hasn’t replied lol. I did ask her if she’d like to converse about the kids parties so it didn’t happen again but she got funny about it. Last year, our sons party finished at the girls party start time and a couple of the boys said they didn’t want to go to another one and it didn’t go down well so I was trying to be thoughtful. All the kids who came to my sons party were late to the girls party too. I tried!

@Youngandfree yes we are lucky they always have done. They don’t give out names or numbers because of data protection.
We have a class WhatsApp group but the lady who was admin has stepped down as class rep and I know people are waiting to be added to it, including myself which is why my sons dad will have to send the reminder. It just won’t get to everyone unfortunately.