Is it normal to get few replies for a class party?

[Mumsince2021x]

I’m a big over thinker (probably social anxiety if i’m being honest) and it was a big thing to do a huge class party for my child. Handed the invites out early last week and have had just under third of the class rsvp.
Is this normal to get quite a few over the coming weeks. Or should I expect many to not reply whether they do or don’t then up on the day. I knew it was quite notorious people not replying but thought it would be more like a third didn’t, 2 thirds did. The party is 5 weeks away so there is a bit of time. I always reply the day of or following day after receiving an invite so I just can’t understand this. Plus why would you want to annoy parents who you are going to be with for 7 years of primary school.

Oh goodness totally normal! It’s 5 weeks away… so after half term?

Why on earth are you annoyed?? Give the parents a bloomin chance

time. I always reply the day of or following day after receiving an invite so I just can’t understand this.

Fabulous . Others wait a bit as may have plans in pipeline; busy etc and a party 5 weeks away doesn’t preoccupy them

Yes after half term. This is why i‘m asking because I think its me being a major over thinker and worrier. If you say totally normal then great I will try not to stress about it and assume rsvps will slowly filter in over the next 5 weeks.

Hate these parties - what is the point? Take the best friend or two on a fabulous day out! Why all this worrying and fretting!

I totally agree. Only doing this as it’s reception and we don’t reliably know who child’s friends are yet. I would have loved nothing more than having a child old born later in the year and being able to choose a few friends to take out. Plus we thought it would have been nice to get to know parents.

Don't worry till about a week before the party. Generally we find replies from best friends (like one or two) come straight away, everyone else much longer. Generally one child going to a party won't be important compared to say fitting in a meet-up with cousins or a family event, so people will sort those out first. Also for people with more than one child, they may need to figure out where other children need chauffeuring to that day first!

Totally normal.

Did the invitation have a deadline for replies?

Realistically when do you need to confirm numbers with the venue or know how many are coming if you’re organising it yourself? I would chase a few days before that

I normally get replies the same day or the next, but we do it all on Whatsapp so it's quicker and easier to reply.

Five weeks is normal notice around here. People tend to make plans quite far ahead as the dcs are busy with trips away, family visits, clubs and booked events like theatre trips. Parties are priority for us so we like to put them in the calendar as early as possible so we can avoid booking anything else on that day.

Did you do physical invites or send it to the WhatsApp group? We always do WhatsApp for any size party and get almost immediate replies from most people. Physical invites people may lose or misplace or just forget to reply.

this. Plus why would you want to annoy parents who you are going to be with for 7 years of primary school.

are you already annoyed at them?

I’ve always had to chase. And chase again!

We get a week's notice where I am.

We’ve got a party (not a whole class one but just the girls) for DD this coming week. one or two rsvp’d on the day or day after the invites were handed out and all the rest replied on the RSVP deadline date.

completely get where you’re coming from as I always reply as soon as I see the invite otherwise I know I’ll forget and it’s one less thing on my list

I did physical invites as I wasn’t 100% sure everyone was on the whatsapp group. I did debate putting an rsvp deadline on but no one put on the invites that came before so I jist followed suit.

Not at all. I know it’s early days and that’s why I know i’m being a little unreasonable and to give it a few weeks. So I wanted to gauge people’s experiences.

I will be annoyed if people just don’t reply at all though and don’t come. Very odd behaviour.

You’re 5 weeks away from the party so seems odd to me to even think about getting annoyed with people. Just give them a chance
and some may not even have got the invitation out of their child’s bag yet

Yes other invites had come 4-6 weeks before so it felt normal. And I agree with you unless we genuinely couldn’t go because we were away or something I would always prioritise a kids party as wouldn’t want them to miss out.

In my experience, most of those who aren’t coming will just not reply rather than message to say no.

To be honest, I think you have sent the invites too early and you won’t get responses until closer to the time. We normally send them 2 weeks in advance with an rsvp date of a week beforehand. You get a couple of replies straight away, a few replies through out the week and a few on the last day when people realise they haven’t replied.

Can you put it on the WhatsApp too? I’m much more likely to click ‘yes’ on there than to respond to a physical invite which always makes me feel so awkward.

I’m not annoyed with anyone just to clarify.

I’m pretty sure most people would say the same of talking hypothetically about people
ignoring invites sent out…

Totally agree 5 weeks is a long time so hopefully i’m worrying for nothing…

If it’s a whole class party I would 100% put it on tbe whatsapp too. Something like ‘hey everyone, just in case the paper invite goes missing here are the details for DDs party. If you could let me know by X date (usually a week before) that would be great!’. I suspect more people will engage with RSVPing when they are literally already on their phones and can check their calendars etc.

No party i’ve been invited to has ever done it that close to the party. It’s always been probably 4-8 weeks with about 5-6 being the average. But i do take the point it’s a risk to send them that early and this is a likely outcome as a result.

Yes it’s a good idea thank you. I will probably do this nearer the time if needed.

Is he your eldest? Or only?

Were the invites put in the children’s bags by their teacher?