It’s my (kid’s) party, and I’ll cry if I want to.
The things parents will do — or not do — for their kids. A mother hosting a birthday party for her youngest child did not provide food for two partygoers because their parents refused to RSVP in time.
Now she’s wondering if she took things a little too far.
Anonymously posting on Mumsnet, a UK-based parenting forum site, the mom explained her situation before asking other parents if she was being reasonable or not.
She explained that she was hosting a bounce-castle birthday party for her 8-year-old, and she sent out invites three weeks beforehand to around 40 children, asking for a response a week before the party’s date.
The mom stressed that she asked those who didn’t RSVP after some time for a response ASAP due to food allergies in the family because she “was doing individual lunch boxes for each child and would like to make sure they had the perfect party lunch box,” she wrote.
“I also put on the invites that once I got an RSVP I would provide food options for their party food box —this was put on both invites: NO RSVP = NO food provided,” she wrote on the parenting site.
In total, 32 kids were expected to be in attendance. “I now had 18 from school confirmed + 6 siblings and 8 family [members]. Happy days,” she explained.
Of course, there were still some parents who dropped their kids off at the party — despite them not acknowledging the RSVP deadline in time.
Considering how firm this mom was with her party food rules, those two unexpected kiddos did not receive lunch boxes.
That didn’t go over well with the hungry kids’ parents as they couldn’t believe the mom didn’t have any extra food.
“It wasn’t a buffet, it was tailored boxes due to allergies. I am not putting my niece at risk. It also cost me less than a buffet doing the boxes for everyone, and much less waste,” the party mom ranted online.
Luckily for this mom, many commenters validated her feelings by agreeing with how she handled things.
“YANBU (you are not being unreasonable). Warning was given on invites, they turned up so must have read it because they knew when and where to come,” one person wrote.
“The thing with spares [lunchboxes] is how many do you do though? Also, some kids can drop out due to illness, change of circumstance on the day and they end up wasted. You followed up and made it clear there would be no food for them without a rsvp … You were not unreasonable,” another commenter chimed in.
“YANBU (you are not being unreasonable). Maybe it’ll make them think twice about being so rude in future. If their children were upset, it’s entirely down to them,” someone said.
However, many other commenters felt the children shouldn’t suffer for their parents’ carelessness.
“I would have done a few extra because you’ve punished the children for their parent’s thoughtlessness,” a person wrote.
“Good for you but I’d have brought along a little extra food anticipating this. The parents deserve it but the kids don’t,” someone else said.
“I don’t think you’re unreasonable but I would definitely have made a couple of extras. I get why you didn’t though!” a commenter offered. “It’s just part of my culture to over-cater. I do what someone else suggested above though and try to get a bunch of pre-packaged stuff that we’d eventually get through anyway, just so it feels less wasteful.”
