Obviously not.
Not only is today VALENTINES DAY, but my son has been invited to a birthday party today.
Which is fine..and nice…however, it is two hours of my life eaten away…two hours exactly, as it is being held at the local community centre and they have a strict time frame to the ‘fun.’
The LAST birthday party Adam was invited to was there also.
I get the draw..we did it once too. It is cheap and easy…a no hassle way of getting the kids to run wild and not eat cake and not give a crap aboutthe birthday boy and his gifts.
I wonder if it will be the parents attending of the nanny. I have only ever met the nanny.
The thing I dislike about ‘these’ sorts of parties is the parents…or what SOME parents do with or without consent from the hosts.
At the last gig, I was pretty much the only mom who stuck around. All the other ‘rents left the birthday mom to control 20 over hyped insane kids for two hours.
We don’t think any of them asked if this was okay.
See.. I stayed…and helped.
Me.
The one who hates playdates because I am forced to interact with other parents.
I don’t mind playdates and you are more than welcome to drop your kids at my place anytime to play….but I don’t really want a playdate with you…the other parent…I am to socially awkward for that…not to mention I value my time.
UNLESS of course you are an amazing person who I am in total awe of…say another blogging mom (hint hint hint)….but if you don’t know what blogging is….well what the hell are we supposed to talk about for two hours.
But I digress.
So the birthday party is this afternoon. I am considering arm wrestling my newly unemployed husband into taking the bullet for me and taking the kids…that or we BOTH go.
He is way better at the parental chit chat than I am.
And I did the last two birthday parties….one with the EVIL NEIGHBOUR WHO HATES ME TOO!
So there.
Where’s the chocolate?
Tell hubby that it would be an awesome v-day present if he took a bullet for you.
I mean, took the kids to the birthday party. 🙂
I have completely dodged the birthday party bullet thus far. My own almost 4-year-old asked for a party with her grandparents, and we haven’t been invited to any other kid’s parties since she was under 2. And when she was under 2, she didn’t know what was going on anyway so I politely declined.
I’m sure I won’t be able to keep this up for much longer, but like you I find the whole thing awkward. If I’m friends with the parents that’s one thing, but otherwise it can be pretty weird.
I ask. If they say “we’re good”, I leave. Im not hovering over my kid, and if the parties we’ve been at, it’s been minimal numbers-ten or less. If I hold a party, I do not expect, or really want other parents around. Let the kids be kids. Nor would I ever expect help from random parents-if I was friends with one of the parents sure, but otherwise-my invite, I’ll deal.
Honestly, I’ve watched parents hovering over their kids at these parties, and it cracks me up to imagine these people ever letting them so anything as controversial as walking to the store alone.
But then, I told my 5.5year old we’d get cap guns this summer, so I’m usually the odd one out. 😛
I feel the same way! I went to Shelby’s Valentine’s Day party Friday at school. There were about 6 other moms there. They thought it was freakin’ social hour. We were there to help with the party, and they wanted to sit around talking! WTF?!
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I feel the same way…both as the parent AND as the nanny. It is socially ackward. I would totally do a play date with you though…we would talk about we COULD blog about…blogging gossip…oh, and I guess kids!
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