Always follow the rules of the Kindergarten teacher: "Please hand deliver birthday invitations outside of class time so no feelings are hurt for those children not invited." Trust me on this one; it is a very good rule.
Milo turns 5 years old next week and we are having his birthday party Sunday afternoon. He invited (and these are his words) "just the silly boys" from his class.
I put the invitations in his backpack on the weekend so I could hand them out at school the next day. Then I forgot they were in there. The second day back to school, one parent handed a familiar looking envelope to the teacher, "This was in Jimmy's backpack." The envelope didn't have Jimmy's name on it. As I warily took the invitation from the teacher, a second parent handed another familiar looking envelope to the teacher. It didn't have her son's name on it either.
I asked the mothers of 2 other boys he should have invited -- one received his invitation, the other didn't. I spent the entire morning puzzling over the situation: where were the invitations? Who had he invited? Would he even remember?
Finally at lunch, the mystery was solved. Milo had handed the invitations out himself at snack time when he found them in his backpack. When Billy said he didn't want to come, Milo gave Billy's invitation to Bobby. Billy also told Milo that Johnny wouldn't want to go either, so Milo asked Eddie if he wanted to come instead.
So, now I have a few extra "silly boys" coming on Sunday and needless to say, I've had to hire a teenager to help out during the party.
Lesson learned: I will always hand deliver invitations outside of class time. If not just for the sake of hurt feelings, but for the sake of my own sanity!
Happy sweeping!
Kathleen Gunther
Editor, ContestHound.com
