Would it be really wrong not to invite this child to DD party? Stupidly complicated!

[Jujubean77]

OK the deal is I had a hall booked for DD party before she started pre-school, got all her little pals invited first then she started to make some friends at school and she got invited to a party of a girl who was having a joint party with another child. I was friendly with this Mum (who invited me) and was happy to attend, obviously taking presents for both girls but I really didn't know the other Mother but was introduced and got along well.

The thing is I really only have room to invite one other child, and of course I would like to invite the girl who first invited DD. However, is it etiquette to invite the other child whose joint party I attended, even though DD does not really know her at all, because I attended her party? The prob is I have a limit with the room hire how many children I can have in there so it will be a tough one to work out.

I don't want any bad feeling. Next year I will hire a soft play or something but this year was only a smallish gathering!

No, not at all. Your DD was invited to by one child and not both of them. Also if I were the other mother I would be delighted to not have to spend a Saturday attending a small children's party

oh thank God for that!

I know some Mums can get REALLY funny about this kind of stuff and the last thing I want to do is offend..

Invite who you want. Don't even go down the road of who you should invite-you end up having parties that are much bigger than you want. I left it entirely to DSs.

Invite the two of them, you can be sure that someone won't show up

My personal rule is that if dd is invited as one of 6 or less in a party then I will try to invite that child back if we do something - and most likely would be anyway because they are part of her close friendship group. If on the other hand she's one of 7 upwards attendees I don't bother (unless part of her particular friendship group). That way you avoid having to ask every child who'se had an uber party when you're trying to havea mini party! Does that make sense?

So in your case I would invite the first girl as being a close friend and previous party hoster but not the second as not a close friend and hoster of a massive party - unless I was doing the uber party thing when I would invite everybody!

Yes, I can't invite everyone can I? and the other party was a jumbo 35 kids jobbie so we were kind of lost in the crowd really.

The other mum won;t (or shouldn't be) offended. Invite the child who invited your DD; the other one doesn't have to be invited.