My ds is 6 and is in his first year of school. I have been friends with another mum at the school since last year - a mother of ds' friend.
Since the beginning I knew she was a bit unreliable, even though she'd be as nice as pie when you see her. She would say 'I'll ring you' and then never ring, she would organise to catch up on a certain day and then 'forget' about it, and if I left a message on her answerphone she wouldn't return the call most of the time. Before you think I've been stalking her (!!) this woman instigated the friendship and is usually the one to suggest getting together. I almost got to the point of not bothering with her anymore but then we began meeting regularly at the playground once a week after school. Each week for months, we automatically met there every Tuesday with the kids and have a chat while they played together - it was quite a nice arrangement. Then at the beginning of last term, she just stopped turning up. No messages or explanations, just stopped coming. I know she is busy as she has 3 kids and takes in homestay students from time to time, but she never even tried to contact me until I got a text message out of the blue, about six weeks later. All she said was "Do you want to meet up soon?" and I returned the text saying, "ok". But when I sent her a message the following week to arrange a day to meet up, she never responded. I was SO annoyed but just let it go, as I was starting to think the whole thing was a waste of time. Finally, the other day (about 6 weeks later again) I saw her at the school and she acted like nothing had happened . She said 'why don't we meet at the playground again on Tuesday afternoon' & I agreed, thinking I'll give it another shot. So I took ds to the playground straight after school & waited for her - nothing. About 20 minutes later I happened to see her driving out of the school grounds, so it appears she had simply picked up her son and left. (SHE HAS MY MOBILE NUMBER MIND YOU, SHE COULD'VE RUNG ME TO CANCEL). By 3.30pm I was so angry that we'd been left sitting there, and I was even more annoyed that ds had been let down as well. I tried to ring her cell phone but there was no answer, and I thought about sending her a very pointed text but then decided I wanted to speak to her personally. Later when I rang her & asked why she didn't turn up (she didn't apologise once), she just said 'oh, it was a very hectic afternoon and I KNEW I was supposed to meet you, but I thought I'd just go straight home because I've had such a busy day." I told her that ds and I had waited for half an hour at the playground for them to turn up, and I let her know that I was angry at not receiving any phone call or text to let me know that she wasn't coming (once again). She completely ignored the fact that she'd left us waiting, and then she suggested meeting up one afternoon next week instead. I said 'No I can't, I'm too busy next week' and just cut the conversation off. I was so angry I'm surprised it didn't let her have it.
I feel childish for getting so annoyed with her, but she has done this sort of thing too many times. I now know that I won't be pursuing the friendship any more. Have I acted like a sucker for putting up with it for so long, and how would others have reacted? Did I do the right thing to let her know I was angry? The difficult thing is, my ds has to go to her son's birthday party next week and I think it's going to be a bit awkward. I just can't believe a person could be so devoid of manners.