Two days before my little girl's 6th birthday party and she comes down with a fever.
A. Fever.
Not just any 99.whatever fever. Like, almost a trip to hospital fever.
2 days before her birthday party.
It's almost like a parent's worst nightmare. Having to cancel your kid's birthday party because of sickness. All the people you have to contact, guests and whomever else you may be using. I don't even know the nightmare of using a venue like a trampoline park, bowling alley, jump house, etc. Thankfully we just do everything at home and hadn't ordered ahead for pizzas or anything food related yet.
But I still had to contact all the people.
My introverted self is so thankful for text messages.
And I am so thankful for text messages when it comes to RSVPs.
This past December we had a birthday party for my oldest. We invited our family friends and we invited lots of classmates. Only a few classmates RSVPd so I figured it would be a relatively smaller party than we usually have and I was looking forward to spending time chatting it up with our family friends.
That was not how it played out. Parents dropped off their kids I hadn't even spoken to. Parents dropped off their kids without even coming in to let me know their kid was there. It felt like every time I turned around there was a new kid in the house and no parent to say "hey, he's mine" or "hey, looks safe in here. see you in 2 hours". I'm so lucky we usually try to err on the side of caution and leftovers.
I thought about this past December as I was sending out messages to our RSVP-ers about having to reschedule our second's birthday party. What if people who hadn't RSVPd try to show up? We have a house of high fever and other things that go along with a nasty stomach virus. The last thing I want to do is have to answer the door to people I don't even know while my kid may be potentially vomiting all over my living room.
What do you do?
I usually try to remember to RSVP, even if it is a few days before the party. At least to make sure it is ok we go. Worst that can happen is they say no.
I got really antsy we were going to get visitors. We hardly had any RSVPs from school friends. Thankfully we live out in the boonies and have a gate we can close to our drive. Not that we want to be mean, but it gave us something to post a note onto for our friends who didn't rsvp should they come.
So many people and websites say to RSVP as a courtesy for the preparatory work needed in event planning. But honestly, it's not just for the headcount. It's for contact information in case there were an emergency, rescheduling, or for cancellations.
So, do you RSVP or just show up? I usually just do when we can attend. But after our last 2 birthday parties, I will be doing it for regrets as well.