Up On My Soapbox: RSVPs

 

Yay, my first Soapbox Blog!!! And Lord knows, I need this chance to vent.

No one ever told me how stressful it is to plan your child's birthday party. As a parent, you want it to be perfect, even more so when it is the first time you've ever done this!!! You have to plan games and music and location! You have to plan for tables and chairs, food, and goodie bags for the kids...and all those things cost money!!! You don't want to spend more than you need to, but you certainly want to make sure that you have enough seating, food and chairs for everyone attending.

RSVP means "Répondez s'il vous plaît", which is a French term meaning "Please Answer". Apparently, it is also too polite for most people. Next year I am putting "Tell me if you're coming or you're shit out of luck!" on all Parker's invitations and will let people get offended if they wish. It takes all of five seconds to type out an e-mail saying that you'll be there or not. Put it in a Facebook message for all I care, but let me know! Now here I am, 9 days until Parker's party and I still have a bunch of people who haven't bothered to tell me either way. All together there are nine children who I don't know if they will be at my son's party or not.

For the life of me, I don't care either way. I would like for our friends to all be there, but if they can't come I'm not going to be offended. What does offend me is that there are nine children and their parents that I have no answer for. That's a whole lot of people that I don't know if I need tables, chairs, food and goodie bags for! What am I supposed to do? Spend the money on food and goodies for the goodie bags on the off hope that people will bother to show up? And if I don't account for all those extra bodies and they end up showing up and have no where to sit, nothing to eat and no goodie bags for their children I'll be the "bitch". They won't tell their kids "It's Mommy and Daddy's fault that you don't have toys like the other kids." because no one takes responsibility for their own actions (or lack there of) anymore. Instead they will tell their kids "That Ms. Holly is so mean! We won't go to Parker's party next year."

Well...screw you. If you can't have the decency of an adult (which is what I thought I was dealing with) to RSVP yes or no by the date I gave, (which was more than enough time) then it is in fact your fault if your child doesn't have a goodie bag at a party. It is your fault if there isn't enough cake or food for your child. It is your fault because you didn't do what you were supposed to do.

I have no intention of spending a bunch of extra money for people who aren't coming. I even have a friend who told me she might be able to come, but isn't sure yet. That is acceptable, because at least I know! The general rudeness of people these days astounds me. I have never seen what is so hard about sending out thank you cards, returning phone calls, or responding to RSVPs...but I could go off on another two or three rants about such things as thank you cards...I just can't believe that this is so hard for people!

It's not just for Parker's party either. Apparently this is a problem that most mothers have when planning their children's parties. Well, it is not going to become a theme with my children. People can RSVP or they can just not bother coming for all I care, but I'm not going to waste my money on people who are to inconsiderate to send off a one liner in an e-mail.

Thank you for reading.