Is It Just Me: Who Thinks Yes, You Should be Invoiced If You Miss a Party

....With no good reason.

I couldn't help but be quite surprised at the backlash the family involved in this story have received.  If you've not seen it yet,  what happened was that a child was invited to a party at a ski run. He then didn't go- not down to illness, but because he decided to go to his Gran's instead.

Which is fine.

Except instead of being entirely normal about it, and phoning the party's hosts, they didn't bother. In fact, they made no attempt to contact them. Thus, they received an invoice for the amount their child;s ticket cost.

Quite right to!

Anyone who has organised a kids party will know how stressful it is. It takes months to organise even if you just do a small shindig in the garden. There's food to consider (and allergies/dietary requirements), party bags, bouncy castles the whole nine yards.

The invites are the biggest stress and parent's of the invitees don't help. First off, you have to hand them out via teachers so as those not invited don't get upset (and if you don't adopt this method, you are, frankly, mean). Then, you have to wait for the yays and nays. If you get 3 invites back you are lucky. So, you then try and track down Mums and Dads to check whether their child can come.

On the day, the stress doesn't end until the last party bag is handed out and the mess is tidied. As usual, there are always kids who turn up who said no or never answered (in other words, their parent's realise you can be a free babysitter for 2 hours of a Saturday evening and dump their kids last minute), and one's who said yes and then never show up, never phone, nothing.

Its rude!

In the case of Mini's party, our Gerbils died of Face Paint poisoning after being fed a set.

So, yes, when someone doesn't show, doesn't call, it is annoying. Of course, if you have organised an outside party, as with this family, you still have to cough up the cash should people not show up. Hence the invites in the first place.

I don't buy the stories from the supposedly shocked parent's that they couldn't tell the hosts. For starters, they say that the Dad forgot he was taking their daughter to Grans for the day, but yet the boy's mother surely could have taken him? Then you have the "didn't know the phone number- well, that's what Facebook is for isn't it?

They then said that the Mother tried to find the hosts parent in the playground but missed her. Surely then, a note could've and should've been past to the teacher to go in the book bag?  Clearly they knew in advance the boy wasn't going.

It sounds to me that they just didn't bother.

That they then got a sealed envelope in the book bag- which the boy would not have been party to hence why he'd be upset- well, tough!

Why should the family pay for their bad manners?

Yes, its a bit far to suggest going to a small claims court, but it's also a bit far going to the press to complain!

Apparently, lazy Mum has suddenly remembered that Facebook exists and messaged the, well within her rights, Mum. Perhaps she should've done that before messing the party hosts around!

If you book to take part, you have to pay. Simple.

Next time, show some manners and show up!

What's your take? Have you had costly no shows or do you think its part of parenting paying out? Let me know in the comments :)