Frugal….not cheap!

Yesterday was my son’s birthday party.  He had passed out invitations to the party and I had put RSVP on them. I was surprised over the week how many phone calls I got from people saying they couldn’t come.  Previous plans seemed to be the reason, although I wondered if it wasn’t something else.

One thing with parties,  I think that running and racing with your friends in your back yard is more important than gifts, but I haven’t figured out a way to say that in an invitation though, and I doubt a parent would feel comfortable showing up to a party without one.  I worry, especially during the economical times,  that parents won’t let their children go to a party because they can’t afford to purchase a gift.

The day of the party only two boys showed up.  Luckily there were enough other children in the neighbor that saw the jumper in the back yard that showed up to help fill out the party.  And like I said before children playing is more important than a gift and it didn’t matter they showed up without one.

Where a couple of years ago, I was worried about running out of food, now, I now have left-overs.  I decided to do an little impromptu survey and began talking to other parents if they had the same thing happen to them recently.  I thought it may have something to do with the age group, but from my little impromptu survey, it seemed that the age of the child didn’t matter.  Kids were not even showing up for pre-school children’s birthday parties, like they used to.

I have searched the web trying to figure out this new phenomenon.  Are parents foregoing attending children’s birthday parties, because of time, expense or what?  As a columnist, I would love to hear your feedback on this matter and you can remain anonymous.  Why have you not taken your child to a birthday party?