Did you see the latest amazing news report? The one where some nitwit sent a no-show bill to a parent whose kid failed to surface at an expensive birthday party for a five-year-old?
The Christian Science Monitor reports that a dad RSVP’ed informally that his son would attend a preschool classmate’s birthday party, which took place at (hang onto your hat) a ski slope! After having replied, orally, that the kid would show up, Dad realized they already had a prior date to spend the day with grandparents. Grandparents trumping day-care colleagues, he scrubbed the ski party — although we’re told he tried, without success, to contact the parental party-givers to let them know his offspring would not be attending.
The peeved parents sent the guy a $26 bill for not showing up.
Think of that.
Welp, if you’d asked me, I would’ve told you…
First off, in my not-very-humble opinion, anyone who would throw a $26/head party for a five-year-old needs to save his money and apply it toward a psychiatrist’s bill.
Second, my kid would not be allowed to go to a five-year-old’s birthday party at a ski slope even if you paid me the twenty-six bucks. What on EARTH could these yokels have been thinking?
Third, this is what we call a First-World problem. The party-givers and all their accommodating guests should be hauled into court and ordered to give $26 a head to poor children in Nigeria.
LOL! I can tell you exactly what the aggrieved hosts were thinking, because I’ve been there and done that… They were thinking Now’s our chance to one-up every other Richerati parent in that preschool class! NO ONE will be able to beat this. Chuck E. Cheese, indeed!
Ugh. These are the kind of upstarts who live in vast McMansions and carpool their brats to private schools in Hummers and Mercedes SUVs. I know them all too well.
When my son was in his expensive private preschool — the one that cost more per year than a year at the University of Arizona Medical School — we carpooled with a woman who bought her obnoxious little darling a different pair of Vans (a pricey canvas slip-on that was all the rage at the time) for every day of the week. Nevermind that the kid’s behavior was so out of control he had to be put on drugs that turned him into a little automaton. And nevermind that over time it became embarrassingly clear he had been sexually abused. Hey. Money can buy anything, eh?…even public opinion. And immunity from prosecution, we might add.
Then there was the guy who rented an entire roller-skating rink for a day, for his kid’s birthday party. They were about eight or ten by then, I think. Holy sh!t. One of the boys fell and broke his wrist, not surprisingly. The partying parents not only supplied a fancy cake and fancy food for the urchins, they brought in cases of wine and beer for the kids’ parents.
At school, we had the annual spring break ski trip to Telluride. Our son has never forgiven us for refusing to let him go on even one of those junkets.
Oh, and fourth: Money doesn’t buy class.
I saw this and had to pick my jaw up off the desk. All this over a party that none of the kids will ever remember?
Jeez. I had two birthday parties as a kid. Both shared with others whose birthdays were near, and both located in a park or backyard where water balloons and cake were featured. What more does a kid need?
Yes, I’m with you. We keep our kids parties pretty reasonable. My son did win a skating party that actually would pay for 20 or so people, so that’s a small possibility should we want to do a party with his friends. We would not charge for no-shows 🙂
Guilty…..Saw this about the charge for the “no-show” and you’re right… a bit much. DW and I are guilty of having some pretty cool B-day parties for our kids. Did have an ice skating party….pretty cool…the kids loved it and we got to watch youngsters play organized…”semi organized” hockey. Had pony rides for one B-day party….but the most imaginative was when we had a guy in an old limo take about 10… 13 year old kids to the bowling alley and back. They went alone and we followed in our car to and from. They loved it! And it was pretty reasonable. The limo guy was just starting out with the 15 year old car and let the kids be kids. They went bowling…had cake…and got a ride back to our place in the limo to be picked up by their folks. That was some time ago and when we see these kids they still talk about ….”THE LIMO”. I seem to remember having a “no-show” or two over the years…I wonder if I should invoice their parents?
For 13-year-olds, the limo is a cool idea. Pony rides are fun and within reason. Ice skating is a great idea…but monopolizing the rink? I mean SHUTTING IT DOWN to the public on a weekend??? If you just had a party and the kiddies were out there skating around, that makes sense. Our guy purchased the roller-skate rink for the entire Saturday afternoon and into the evening, for the exclusive use of his son, the kiddies, and the adults he was trying to impress.
Here in my area of the country, the semi-urban northeast, birthday parties at an outside venue are the norm. When everyone is living in a tiny house or condo, that minimal space is just not ideal for a pack of crazed kids! The venues provide snacks, organized games, and helpers to run the games. Worth every penny! While I dont support billing no-shows, I do find it incredibly annoying that people seem to think it is OK to just blow off their social commitments. You invite people to dinner, then hear nothing. Then you call them and ask if they are able to make it. They say “sure, see you there!” Then on the evening of your dinner party, only half the guests actually bother to show, and you are eating leftovers for a week. Incredibly bad manners and so frustrating. When you make a social engagement, you dont break it because something better came along, and the parents should be teaching their son that. Unless the grandparents are terminal, their grandson has a previous commitment that needs to be honored, and they can see him after Christmas.
Yah, but c’mon…a ski slope? $26 a kid? For preschoolers? What ARE these folks trying to say to us?
We often staged parties for our kid at various venues. There are two beautiful public parks here where you can reserve a ramada for parties, for free. One of them hosts a model train club whose members have built this amazing ride-on train; the other has a playground with a grand old carousel and lakes where you can rent paddleboats. There’s an amusement park with games and rides. There are two water parks appropriate for older kids who can swim.
Children enjoy that kind of thing every bit as much as some ostentatiously expensive show. We are talkin’ about five-year-olds here!
And as for rude types who fail to RSVP…hey. That comes under the heading of “life.” The solution is pretty simple: don’t invite their kid to your kid’s parties, ever again.
Oh, and postscript: According to the article, the actual previous commitment was to the grandparents. The dad had forgotten or didn’t realize they had promised to spend the day with the grandparents. He also claimed (how credibly is up to the listener, I’d say…) that he’d tried to get in touch with the party-givers but could not find a phone number for them that worked.
I’m afraid a previous commitment to the grandparents, who presumably actually love my child, would trump a party for parvenu five-year-olds any day. 😀
I tend to disbelieve the assertion that the previous commitment was to the grandparents. If you found out you had double booked, wouldn’t you contact the other parents with copious apologies? And if you couldn’t find 1) the invitation with the number to RSVP, 2) the school directory with their contact information 3) any mutual friends who were also attending the party to convey your apologies 4) the number of the venue where the party was to be held, then why the heck are you even attending a party with complete strangers? The article also says that this is not the first time they have behaved this way. They were completely inconsiderate. And, sadly you are right that many people are completely inconsiderate. Is the right thing to do to shun the little boy, and never invite him to a party again? I would agree with never inviting the parents anywhere ever again, but it seems pretty harsh for the kid who will know exactly why he isn’t being invited to parties anymore.
As for the parents, they may be nasty parnevu rich folk, but I just wanted to point out that different areas have different needs as far as throwing parties. Up here in ski country, a party at a ski slope is not uncommon (also not 26 bucks a head, but I have no idea what the cost of living is in Britain), while a pavilion at the park at this time of year would require full ski gear, without the ski slope!
LOL! Marezy, you’re much, much kinder than I am! And also even more skeptical: a felicitous combination.
I would be willing to buy the excuse that Dad either didn’t remember or hadn’t been told that they were supposed to spend the day with the grandparents. But I’m with you in suspecting his story about not being able to reach the party-throwers. Even assuming they’d tossed the invite by the time they figured out that they had something else going on, they PROBABLY could have gotten the phone number at the school (maybe not, but then again maybe). Also given the extent to which parents who send their kids to upscale day-cares tend to carpool, it’s hard to believe they didn’t know ANYONE who had the party parents’ phone number or email.
And yeah…living here in the Valley of the We-Do-Mean Sun, I tend to overlook the stresses involved in having to entertain little kids outdoors in places where it snows. Still…holy mackerel…twenty-six bucks a head? For a preschool class of 20, that would run Host Mom & Dad $520 — and that’s BEFORE the expensive birthday gifts they presumably bestowed upon their scion. Even if the class had only 15 kids, the party alone would come to $390. Gasp!!!!
You would be rich if you added up everything other children’s parents owe you. I found this funny at MommaSaid dot net.
It could be a good money-making scheme.
Cocktail party conversation:
“And what do you do as a side gig?”
“I bill bad-mannered parents for their social gaffes. No more overtime for me!” 😀