Thanks for the invite, little Johnny would love to come!

[Arpegios]

It's become a little game I have with myself every time I'm added to a kids party WhatsApp group - counting the number of mums who use this phrase - it seems to be the stock response! Once I saw 8/9 replies in a row that were this exact text with only the child's name swapped out!
First I refused to conform and always wrote something more imaginative... now I like to join in and see how many repeats we can get!

Because we've got a hundred billion other things in our in-trays and this requires 1. A quick response and then 2. Type it into the diary. Then it takes up no more headspace.

Aren't you sometimes busy op?

Yes, what we want is for busy mums to lovingly craft individually unique replies to the 29 invites that their kids get.

Well done on being so judgey!

Well that's told you OP, don't you ever make a mildly interesting observation on here ever again. You heinous murderer.

What's a more creative way of accepting an invitation? Do you perform your response in interpretive dance? 😁

Expressive dance AND song please @JudgeBread do keep up with the multi-taskers please…😇

Now I'm interested - what is a creative way to accept a party invite? Give us some examples OP

I always send mine in Latin. Keeps people on their toes.

“little Johnny will come, but isn’t looking forward to it. He thinks your kid is a dick.”

i haven’t asked little Jonny if he fancies it but it’ll get him out of my hair for 2 hours next Saturday so it’s a yes from us thanks.

It actually irritates me more when people feel the need to use marginally different phrasing just to look like they’ve not exactly repeated the previous reply, this seems to be the trend in all of the groups I’m in.

Jonny is excited to come along, thanks for the invite!
Jonny can’t wait to celebrate with X, thank you.
Sounds fab, Jonny will be there, thanks.

What else is there to say though?

Well writing 'Little Johnny is pretty ambivalent about the party as he isn't really friends with Sophie and has been to 14 parties already at that soft play, but I'm accepting on his behalf anyway as otherwise I'll have FOMO' is probably less likely to win friends.

I never reply to the WhatsApp but instead convey Johnny's acceptance via the art of mine when I see the birthday child's mum at the school gate. This way she knows we truly appreciate the invitation.

Just makes me think of communal cards… I use to always make sure I wrote first in office leaving cards, just made life so much easier than having to think of some variation of good luck in your new job!

I suppose 👍 emoji would be considered bad etiquette. Altho I did manage to get two through primary without class WhatsApp’s so they were either shunned or I’d of got a separate invite…

What else should they say? What a stupid thing to have a problem with? Count your blessings. Your child has lots of friends that want to come to their party! Brilliant!

Informative and to the point. Some people have got more to do than a creative writing piece to accept a kids party invite

I always try to get in early when there's anything on a group WhatsApp to which multiple people are likely to respond precisely so I don't need to worry about not parroting the same wording as everyone else.

Does anyone ever point out that it's an invitation, not an "invite"?

I usually replied by txt message and never put “little” so that’s my variation.
Now I’m in the hobby’s what’s app group and have noticed the problem with stock responses 😀
So I started to do the same as @Nonameagain31 trying to respond first.

'Little Johnny would love it. I, however, would rather stick pins in my eyeballs than spend two hours in soft play hell at 6:30 in the evening... Cheers a bunch.'

I’ve got it saved as a template, same as “DC had a lovely time, thanks for the invite” and “so sorry DC can’t make it they hate your child we are away that day”. I do occasionally jazz it up with an emoji or two…

Is there a Big Johnny?

The ‘little’ is strange but what else do you want people to say?

I would say "thank you for the invitation" not invite.

It's been a long time since my children were invited to parties - before WhatsApp!

I was going to say the same!
Mine used to love taking a pile of invitations into school and giving them out to their friends. And the excitement of receiving an envelope addressed to them. They used to fill out the reply slips and give them back to their friend.

Are the children not involved in the process at all anymore?

what a thing to pass judgement on 😳

get a life