Hi all,
Me and DH have had a minor disagreement over attending our friend’s children’s birthday parties. Each time one of our friend’s children has an upcoming birthday party an invite gets put out into the group chat with a mixture of those of us with children and without. I have always felt that as we are without children, it would be awkward for us to attend as we have no relationship to the children that will be there, and we wouldn’t be able to do any sort of socialising as the parents will be busy with their kids, plus the event is not about us socialising with our friends, it’s a kids birthday party, full of screaming children who are having fun. We have of course attended family member birthdays for our young nieces, nephews and cousins, but I feel that is different as we have relationships with the children, and children of our best friends who we would be called ‘auntie and uncle’ to.
My DH feels that we should attend because he’d like the opportunity to see our friends and catch up with them. I have reiterated that it will only be the friends with children, who will likely be too busy for a catch up, and we both have plenty of child free opportunities to catch up with them. I have no aversion to having a relationship with the children either, we have spent 1:1 time with our friends and their children in their homes but this is not common, and we aren’t close enough to any of these friends for them to ask us to babysit for example.
AIBU for saying we shouldn’t attend? It’s worth noting that DH wouldn’t attend without me.