Shirley's party advice part 4 - Better at party planning than Pippa Middleton

[BlatherskiteOfTheLivingDead]

New thread :) Everyone welcome.

Too late

However, since DS has been persuaded chosen to invite DC whose parents you know, you can check on the chances of them bolting, so that you know who to "mark". Presumably it will be you, DH and at least one parent - so as long as you obsessively periodically count heads, you should be fine.

Maybe you should get them all cheap florescent green hats for their presents, then they would be easier to spot?

Hat's would be genius. They'd feel like a little gang!

Or tabards with numbers on like numtums then you can just shout to dh "ive lost number 3!"

I suppose I only feel so bad because I pushed a little for him not to come. As I said, DS wasn't too bothered and was quite happy to choose others but this kid was on his original list so I feel guilty.

I let him hand out the invites because he was so excited and wanted too. He did it last year as I only had a vague idea who some of the children were so it was easier. This year, he's chosen children who's parents I at least know to say hi to but there were a few others on the original list who I had no clue about. There was a Max and a Charlie, neither of whom I've ever heard him mention before, who I wouldn't have been able to pick out in the line never mind finding their parents to give an invite to.

*i do not of course expect cool dude 6 yr olds to dress as numtums whilst sledging.

Dh and I will be there plus my Dbro and his GF as they're helping on the slope. That gives us 2 to 'mark' each which should be enough. I'm not sure any of the invitees are bolters so hopefully, it will all be fine.

Depends on the school, DW. So far at DC's school the default protocol seems to be that invitations are given to the teacher who will then put them into book bags - certainly for whole class parties and for some others (e.g. all the girls/all the boys) but I know some schools can't/won't do that. For very small parties people seem to do it directly parent to parent (which works unless you are the mother who forgot to actually send the texts and realised 24 hours before the party that no-one knew about it ) but that doesn't actually stop the DC knowing all about parties that they are not invited to - anyone's party is inevitably the subject of much playground discussion.

I'm still feeling guilty

Reception and year 1 and 2 all share that playground and Y1 and Y2 are shared year groups so there was about 90 kids on the side of the yard in which DS was giving out his 7 invites! There were way more kids not invited than invited.

Is it cruel for me to say isnt it katie hopkins who steers her children's invites and friendships

Thanks DW!

Cannot wait until yours are at big school

oooh, DW, dangerous ground there . I did have to have the conversation with DS when he was about 6 or 7 about how I had no problem that I was prepared to admit to with him being friends with X at school, but that DS would not be going to X's house because I did not trust X's mother to keep him safe, and X would not be coming to our house because I could not trust him to listen to safety-critical "rules" (like not going near or out of the gate which opens straight onto a road where people speed by at 70mph+). I didn't have the issue with parties though, as sadly X's mum was/is so flaky that you would never get an answer and X would only turn up if brought by another parent, in which case he was their problem.

Blathers - stop kicking yourself. It makes no odds how you handle invites - sooner or later they are all going to be aware of who is invited and who isn't and there is nothing you can do about that.

Trying.

Failing

Oh dont worry my child attracts all sorts of unsavouries. One child she befriended, he's moved thank god, but the stepdad rejoiced in telling me how the kid had to live with family friends as they both had a serious drug habit but it was "okay cos we only do weed now".

No dd you cant go to x's house to play sweetheart!!

Stop feeling bad right now blathers you honestly have done nothing wrong and its not like it was a whole class thing and you excluded 1 kid. This is totally fine.

On the back of the meatballs revelation tonight i made sloppy joes, wedges and corn on the cob.

She had a massive screaming tantrum that she just wanted a cheese roll. I really calmly told her that no, she needed to have the mince like everyone else or she was free to get down from the table. She sternly told me no about three times staring me out. I told her if she had one roll with the mince mixture she was free to make any concoction she liked afterwards. I told her she was welcome to make her own "sloppy joe".

She sulked but wanted to make it so she had fun putting it together. Then ate it! All of it. And said make this again mum but without sweetcorn. I made such a fuss over what fun it was eating the corn on the cob that she did lick it.

I should add that i have trypophobia so corn on the cobbis a massive revulsion for me. But i'd say that was a successful meal!

Yea! New stuff! Well done you (I had to google to see what a sloppy joe was...)

DD is managing to turn meals into battlegrounds with me ATM - not because she is fussy, but because she will not focus - she eats really slowly, or really messily, or both - sits there with a mouth full and just 'forgets' to chew and swallow. Sooner or later I lose my rag and turn into shouty Mummy and she sobs crocodile tears. Thing is, it's won't not can't - if she decides to concentrate for some reason she can eat masses, at a perfectly resaonable speed, and without it ending up all over her.

[sigh]

We have been trying to feed her earlier, which means giving up on family meals because we don't generally get out of our home offices until 6pm at the earliest, and DS doesn't get home until 6:30 - 7:45pm (depends on the day), but it's not really helping. This evening I will be in the office until 6pm, by which time I am hoping DH will have fed her [coward]

Remind me how old the dc's are stealth.

I try so hard not to shout at dinner but i must admit at times i've lost it. Usually when its the dissecting, wiping it on the table malarky. I've found myself telling "for god sake dd it's food, just food?!! How hard can it be? A meal shouldn't be like this!!" My biggest one is i put the plate down and she says "how much do i have to eat?" Noooooo you just eat it!!!! Not how much not how many mouthfuls just foood in your mouth!!!

And do you have a home office each??

DS (bottomless pit) is 10, DD is 6. They have recently introduced a rule at school that you can't talk at the table until you have finished your first helping (they have family style lunch with a teacher on each table) - I am 100% sure suspect that DD was the cause of the new rule.

We pretty much have to have a home office each as we work for competing companies - DH's is a warm cosy but sweltering in summer because the window doesn't open room in the house - mine is a shed in the garden

and yes, "how much do I have to eat" is a favourite of DD's too - and a red rag to a shouty mummy bull.

What i wouldnt give for a shed in the garden. I used to have a work station in an alcove wardrobe once. It felt like another universe to shut myself in a cupboard!! But im really loving it that you work for competitors.

I had to google trypophobia. I've never tried making a sloppy joe though.

I often wish DH had a home office rather than a desk in the lounge but the reality is that if he did, I'd never, ever see him as he'd be in there all the time.

Dont google my phobia it'll throw images up that'll make you vomit!! Or is that just me. Arghhhhh.

Just you - and other trypopobics I guess - I thought they were fascinating.

Just don't bring a spider near me Ok

Oh christ im scared of spiders massively too. And closed spaces and flying but i think flying comes from being closed in. And heights. I went up the empire state once, i shat myself being in the lift for aaages nevermind when i stepped out the top. I'm a proper wuss. And i dont do rollercoasters either.