Monday, June 19, 2006

Summer Birthdays Suck

I feel like the worst mother in the world.

#1 son's birthday was yesterday. He's been planning his party for almost two months. We created a ringtoss game in the shape of a Triceratops head. He made a bunch of toys all by himself for games, baked a birthday cake (Lemon/White Chocolate), and did all the get-ready-for-a-party things.

Nobody came.

We sent out the invitations about four weeks ago, during the last week of school. We had RSVP's from three kids - each of whom would have brought a sibling or two, for a total of 6-8 kids. I wasn't counting on any of the others, though I had some hope that one or two might show up anyway. Instead, even those who had said they would come didn't, and I was left with a sobbing 8-year old, who didn't understand why none of his friends would come. S and I did everything we could think of. We looked up phone numbers and called people. I even drove out to the house of one family whose home phone was unlisted. Nothing doing, nobody was home. Eventually we took the kids out to Chuck E. Cheese's, which seemed to ameliorate the day a little. It didn't help though, that even dear old Chuck E. didn't come through. Normally the mouse comes out to sing Happy Birthday to kids, but apparently they couldn't find anyone to don the mouse costume yesterday, because he never came out.

Poor kid - what a completely sucky day.

4 comments:

Mathieu said...

indeed... why did nobody come?

Perpetual Beginner said...

We haven't heard back from anybody yet about their absence. My best guess is that the 4 week lead time was too long for a kid's birthday party, and they had forgotten. I suspect Father's Day is the reason they were all out and about when we called.

Unfortunately, since our only contact with most of these kids is through school, we couldn't have passed out the invitations any later than we did (last week of school). What I will probably do next year is make sure I have phone numbers for anyone who RSVPs next year, and give them a reminder phone call a day or two ahead of time. Embarassing, but it beats all heck out of having to console your kid.

Becky G said...

OH, that is so terrible! Almost the same thing happened to my son when he turned 4. He did have ONE child outside of family show up.

Give him a big hug from me and tell him happy birthday.

Perpetual Beginner said...

Will do, Becky.

We've heard back from one of the no-shows. Mom was out-of-town for the weekend, and Dad, being clueless about the kids social lives, completely forgot.

It's interesting that she called and apologized, even though it was his screw up. The girls are now scheduled to come over next week for a day of water games in the backyard.