Invited to party and no one there!

[harlacem0507]

As the title starts basically! My 19 month old got invited to a 1st birthday party by a mum I know from baby group (not close but make small talk every week) at our local village hall. Party started at 3pm, we rocked up at 3.20 as our daughter overslept from her nap and no one was there! Bouncy castle was inflated, along with chairs and tables and balloons organized but no one about! We saw the lady that runs the village hall she said they popped back for something and gave her a call, said u have guests, mum replied we are coming back anyway, so we waited another 20 minutes outside the actual doors (but inside the main hall) then the brother of the mum arrived and let us in, a few more people with kids arrived and it got to 4.10 and we decided to leave, there was no juice to get the kids, no food etc as they obviously hadn't come back, I felt a bit bad leaving but aibu to think wtf was all that about? I mean I like to think I'm chilled but this was on another level? My partner was astounded by it! Oh and we didn't leave the present either as it seemed a bit odd leaving it and not being there so my daughter is currently playing with it!

Hey! Mo presents if they can't feed you! Sucks a baby had to get punished for a bad party...

She said why she was late - DC overslept

I just said that! Why are you nitpicking over this?

I think it was so tight to take the present for a child back home with you but other than that I don’t think there was anything wrong with you leaving. Strange situation.

Have you reached out to the mother yet to find out what happened, OP? I'm guessing she sent messages to the other attendees but didn't have your number to let you know it was cancelled at short notice. Weird, but until we know we don't know. I'd still give the gift though next time you see her.

Are the family of African heritage? If so then there may be a more relaxed attitude to timings. I’ve been to kids parties of African prople where the invite says 2pm, I turned up at 3pm and no one was there except the family, then everyone else trickled in 2-4 hours later. But these have been house parties so food and drink served all afternoon, the kids just play, the adults chat, no one’s bothered about start and end times.

If this happened to me I would pop round with a present for the child. The mum would no doubt tell you what happened. Maybe her child was ill.

I'm another one that thinks the OP got the wrong time. Either a mistake on her part or the Birthday Child's Mother's fault. If other people had been there when she arrived late, then fine - but no-one else turned up until about 4pm or just after which makes me think it wasn't supposed to start at 3pm!!

If the mother hasn’t got the OP’s number, how is the OP going to contact her - unless the mother gave OP her number, but OP didn’t reciprocate?

But what was she supposed to do with the present? Leave it in an empty room??

Nah fuck that, I can’t be doing with people who are THAT flaky. I’m just pleased your DD wouldn’t have been expecting a party or to see her friend, if she the birthday girl aged 3+ imagine how upsetting that would be. So rude to be late. Even ruder to keep guests waiting without so much as a text.

Sounds like the beginning of a Sophie Hannah novel!

I also think people are being a bit naive saying there must have been an emergency. Some people are THAT flaky. Usually cheeky fuckers who give no shits about the impact their flakiness has on others

I would have taken the present too OP but just to give at another date only so I knew it ended up in the hands of the birthday girl

She would have the OP's contact number, otherwise how would OP have RSVPd to say yes she could make the party

Hardly anyone writes out a" yes" RSVP - we all text them now dont we?

I don’t know, because I’m not she and I wasn’t there…

It is strange that the brother didn’t give an explanation!Whatever the reason!

I Iove Sophie Hannah... I'd read this book🤣🤣

Presumably the mum hosting the party waited for everyone to turn up and no one did so they went home upset and by the time they learned some people had turned up they were too pissed off to go back and pretend everything was fine.

This happened to me once.
Got invited to a work 'reunion'. Turned up and it was busy but I was confused as I didn't recognise anyone. Asked at the venue if I was in the right place. They asked how long it had been since I last saw my work'mates'. (maybe everyone just looked different 😂) They double checked the booking name and then informed me that the original booking I had turned up for had been canceled a few weeks back. Boy was I embarrassed 😳.
They felt sorry for me and offered me a free drink, but I legged it! Couldn't get out of there quick enough. I was mortified.
Still don't know if I was set up on purpose, but at least I can look back now and laugh my bloody head off about it all. Hahahahaha
😁 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂

I mean, she didn’t grab it out of the one-year-old’s hands. As the one-year-old… wasn’t there. I don’t think it will have left any psychic scars. 😀

Within 20 mins?

@harlacem0507 is it possible some kind of emeegency happened and others knew about it? How many people turned up in the end? Was it a firm 3pm start, not like a "drop by between 3 and 5"?

sorry for all the questions 😂

Weird. I don't blame you for not leaving the gift tbh!

Precisely my point! The poster I was replying to was trying to suggest the OP should “reach out” to the mother in case the mother didn’t have her number to do the same. It’s pretty clear she would have it.

I know you’re not her and you weren’t there. But you were suggesting you would have gone home after 15 minutes in the same scenario, which I find utterly bizarre.