As I lie here awake on the evening of my daughter’s seventh birthday in a hotel room on the other side of the world, I am thinking of all the things I still have to do before their birthday party on Sunday.
Mr A and Miss Z were both born in June so I normally do a joint party for both of them.
This time around I wasn’t planning a big thing until I saw Miss Z hand make invitations with the theme of Cinderella.
That kinda melted my heart and I told her I would organise a party for her.
In one day I created the invitations, booked the venue and a face painter that I found with the help of a friend and hired a bouncy castle too.
I felt pretty good because that was actually simple and stress-free. The complicated part came next.
I got the class lists from the school office and we basically invited every child because my kids couldn’t decide who they wanted to invite or not.
I clearly stated on the invite an RSVP deadline of 1st of June.
By Sunday the 31st May I had about 10 (out of 60) confirmations from my son’s friends and 2 (out of 40) from my daughter’s.
Now, I don’t know if others have had the same issues or pain around party planning.
I normally order everything for the party online and the food from Costco. But how are you supposed to order stuff in time for the party if the large majority of parents don’t confirm that their child is coming? And worse, when they show up anyway?
On Monday I was leaving for the US, but I made sure I went with the kids to school in the morning to see if I could get some more confirmations. I got some “oh sorry I forgot” or “maybe she’ll come” or “I didn’t get the invite” sort of excuses and I went along with it.
The good thing is that I got some more confirmations that day. The bad is that I’m still getting texts now. So what do you say? “hey sorry, you didn’t confirm until the date so little Johnny can’t come”?
I had to basically estimate the number of kids and make the orders. If, in the end, there aren’t enough food packs or party bags or tattoos then that’s just life.
I just hope my kids will love the party and one day appreciate how stressful it can be to organise it and be thankful.
I’m not even going to mention the cost of it all… Insane!!…