Odd kid's birthday party invitation

[FlightlessDuck]

On the social calendar, kids birthday parties, unless very good friends, is at the bottom of the list. There is no way I’d rsvp saying my child will attend until the week before. I’ve hosted dozens of kids parties, invitations sent 10 - 14 days usually have folks RSVPing right away, more than a month out they get set aside. It’s not a wedding.

Sure, that's fair. I just understand why somebody would do send an invitation out that early. I have a summer birthday and as a kid, it was hard getting friends to be available due to vacations.

 

[BadPinkTink]

I would buy a $5 gift, the tackiest I could find, wrap it all nice and that's all. Disrespect me by being a money grab female dog and that's what you get.

 

[mjkacmom]

Sure, that's fair. I just understand why somebody would do send an invitation out that early. I have a summer birthday and as a kid, it was hard getting friends to be available due to vacations.

I would rsvp immediately if I knew we’d be away, but if not I’d wait a while.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

I would buy a $5 gift, the tackiest I could find, wrap it all nice and that's all. Disrespect me by being a money grab female dog and that's what you get.

But it's not the kid's fault if the mom sent the invitation that way. Seems kind of petty to me. Don't go if you don't want to or can't, but I'm not being a jerk to a kid who had no say in the invitation.
Also, you might want to think about why you would take it so personally. If mom put it on all the invitations then I would imagine she didn't think it would be so poorly received. It's not like it was directed at you personally.
(Don't get me wrong,I still think it's tacky and I would roll my eyes but I wouldn't be this level of upset about it)

 

[mumto3girls]

But it's not the kid's fault if the mom sent the invitation that way. Seems kind of petty to me. Don't go if you don't want to or can't, but I'm not being a jerk to a kid who had no say in the invitation.
Also, you might want to think about why you would take it so personally. If mom put it on all the invitations then I would imagine she didn't think it would be so poorly received. It's not like it was directed at you personally.
(Don't get me wrong,I still think it's tacky and I would roll my eyes but I wouldn't be this level of upset about it)

Yes. This is my take on it—don’t take mom’s tacky choices out on the kid. And even though I’d be rolling my eyes, it would make my life a smidge easier since I wouldn’t need to shop for a gift.

 

[Ursula J]

Ok y'all my dd is going to be 16 next March so if you want to start sending me money now for a birthday trip to WDW that would be great! Anyone who sends over 1000 can join us for a meal at Beaches and Cream

 

[Nick102]

I think it’s odd to send out a kid’s birthday invitation 2 months in advance, most will put it aside and forget about it.

Totally agrees with you!! It's really odd also asking for money is rude!
What I did is sent an invitation 2 days before the party and sent the car to pick them up!

 

[Skywalker3]

Used to hate shopping for kids' birthday presents. It was always way better when they specific something they were into, like Legos or whatever. I wouldn't feel comfortable putting that on an invitation, but I don't care either. Makes it a whole lot easier to shop. My youngest is a teen, and that's ALL they give each other-cash.

 

[brockash]

I am probably being petty, but DD10 just got a printed birthday party invitation for the middle August. However, it had a hand written note from the mother at the bottom asking for money so she could get a bigger gift the child wanted.

We are not related to her. We also understand not wanting more trinkets, toys, etc., but this just seemed odd. What would you do? Give the $ or a gift anyway?

Not go??? Unless we were pretty close to them, it's just too awkward for me.

 

[DisneyHardin]

The only way I see this as an acceptable thing is if the kid had like a charity/foundation they were passionate about and the invite was like "in lieu of a gift please donate to X, Johnny's favorite". I'm not sure how super common that would be for a 10 year old to think like that but that's the only situation I could see it being acceptable to just simply ask for your kid's parents to contribute straight up money as a means for a collective gift.

My cousin's kids always did something similar to this for their birthdays. Instead of money though, the party guests brought pet supplies to donate to the animal shelter. My cousin always felt like her kids got plenty of toys for their birthdays just from them and grand parents, so they didn't need a bunch of stuff from their friends too, so they did the animal shelter gifts.

 

[nw6675]

My cousin's kids always did something similar to this for their birthdays. Instead of money though, the party guests brought pet supplies to donate to the animal shelter. My cousin always felt like her kids got plenty of toys for their birthdays just from them and grand parents, so they didn't need a bunch of stuff from their friends too, so they did the animal shelter gifts.

This would be perfectly acceptable since not for personal gain like the invitation we got. I think it is a great idea!

 

[TLSnell1981]

It's odd and inappropriate IMO Although I would stick cash in a card and forget about. It's not the kids fault. They didn't choose their parents.

 

[ThistleMae]

If my child was a close friend, I would just give the money. Otherwise, wouldn't go anyway.

 

[nw6675]

It's odd and inappropriate IMO Although I would stick cash in a card and forget about. It's not the kids fault. They didn't choose their parents.

And this one (mother) is a doozy

 

[TLSnell1981]

And this one (mother) is a doozy

Poor kid!

 

[nw6675]

OP here with update in the spirit of today's weird wedding invite thread

The mother contacted me 10 days before the RSVP due date to see if we were coming. We legitimately can't go, so I let her know but offered for her daughter to come stay with us around the birthday. She blew that off and it felt more like she was disappointed that the funds possibly would not be coming.

Even DD said - why do they always come around at her birthday?

 

[SharonZ]

Maybe the invitation was sent out so early to fund the actual party and not towards the birthday kid's gift. It sounds like a scam, I would decline and buy some sort of gift anyway.