Four kids tuned up

[Boymum776]

My son is in Reception, and he’s one of the youngest in the year. We invited his whole class to his birthday party through the class WhatsApp group. There are 30 children in the class. This year I’ve taken my son to pretty much every class party we’ve been invited to, or at least every one we were able to attend. I’ve made an effort to chat to the other parents too, even though a lot of them already know each other because their children all went to the same nursery.

Four children turned up to my son’s party. The venue had a minimum of 12 children, so I still had to pay for 12 places. It’s not even just about the money, it’s seeing your child so excited for their birthday and then watching hardly anyone come. I’m just so angry and disappointed. It honestly feels like a parent popularity contest rather than people thinking about the children. They’re only five years old. At this age, birthdays should be about making kids feel included and celebrated, not about who the parents already know. I feel like writing a bit fuck you in the class chat, obviously I won’t… but HOW do I get over the anger when I have to see these people 5 days a week!

She did answer them. She sent invites out and then did a poll as a follow up. Bizarre that people are tying themselves in knots to blame the op rather than the rude people who rsvp yes then didn’t turn up.

The OP has posted 7 times using words. At no point has she answered questions about the wording of the invite or poll. What she has actually said is:

We invited his whole class to his birthday party through the class WhatsApp group.

There is a clear difference between “Little Jonny will be having a birthday party at JumpWorld at 3pm on Saturday 11th” (information) and “you’re all invited to…….” (Invitation)

12 did say they could make it, (I did a poll) because not many really responded to the invite.

Suggests the OP’s invitation may have been unclear.

I sent the invite and then a follow up poll a week later.

OP hasn’t shared the wording of the poll, and this seems a weird way to collect RSVPs. “Can you come?” is different to “will you come?”

assumed if 12 had put yes we can attend and knew the date and time they would just show up.

Can attend, not will attend. Interesting wording by the OP. Perhaps she wasn’t clear on WhatsApp.

*had nothing to do with the way I invited them, most do the invite only not even a poll. I only had to do that because hardly anyone responded to the invite!

Most people don’t do a poll because that’s weird. A low response to what you think is a clear invitation suggests you might need to follow up and be more specific. Again, we don’t now if the poll was worded “respond here whether you will be attending the party” or “can you attend?” But something was wonky because people responded but didn’t show up, and a whole load of others didn’t respond to OP but did to an invite the following day.

Occam’s Razor: the most likely reason is that OP’s communications were unclear (as are her posts on here). It’s far less likely that an entire group decided to actively upset OP and her small child for shits and giggles. We will never know though as OP isn’t here to enlighten us.