Is it that difficult to RSVP?

My idea - posting a reminder on each cubby

I don’t consider that the act of actually responding to an invitation is all that difficult. If you get an invitation, call or email them back! Have we ourselves missed RSVP dates? Of course, who hasn’t? Still, we do eventually call or something. For each of the kids’ birthday parties in the past six years, it has been mind-numbing to understand why the parents of children can not RSVP to save their lives. We invite the entire class, and what do we get? Absolute silence. It’s not just us — we’ve spoken to other parents, and they’ve gotten the same type of non-response. I think we’ve had the most luck when we tackle another parent in the hallway, and point-blank ask them, “Uh, did you get our invitation?”

I remember for Josh’s 2nd birthday party, we received three actual attendees from his class, plus our friends and family. One time we were fed up, and we had Josh’s 4th birthday party in his classroom during the school hours, and hired a clown. We figured, these kids will at least have to be there at that time. This year for his 6th birthday party, my wife sent out 40 invitations, and about 25 kids showed up.

I’ll be honest that we’ve been struggling with Lily’s birthday party this year. We found a really neat place called Junglerrrific nearby that has a great facility and program. There are only 25+ kids in her class, but we’ve only received a few actual responses from her classmates’ families. Absolutely nothing from the rest. It was possible some of them forgot or lost the invites, so I had this bright idea to put reminders (or post-it notes) on the cubbies, so the parents would be reminded. Yeah, we got two more responses. Two.

What is wrong with these people? I think with friends and the handful of classmates, we’re at about 15, so we’ll be fine for Saturday, but I’m honestly shocked and appalled by the lack of effort. I mean, really, our kids are in the same classroom all year. You get an invitation, can you say something?