Party Politics

When I picked the boys up from school today, they were all aflutter. "It's XXX's birthday today! We're going to Chuck E. Cheese tonight for his birthday party!" Um...what?

I was forced to explain to the boys that we had received no invitations anywhere. As I grasped for a way to tell them it was possible that they just weren't invited to this kid's party, Aidan began to cry, insisting that the kid himself had just invited him...and really, in the mind of a 5-year-old, how much more of an invitation do you need?

Now, this particular kid is one of the few we've actually had a playdate with, so I have to admit I was a little surprised to hear that the boys hadn't been invited to his birthday party...surprised enough, in fact, that I began to wonder if I'd maybe overlooked an invite that had come home amongst the 5 zillion pieces of paper the school sends home every day. 

So I did the unthinkable...I called the parents and actually asked if there was, in fact, a birthday party and if my children were, in fact, invited (or not). SO awkward! If I'd stopped to think about it a bit longer, I probably wouldn't have done it, but the boys were upset and I was confused and...whatever.

Two incredibly awkward conversations later (first with the stepdad, who claimed to know nothing, and then with the mom), the outcome was that my children did go to a birthday party tonight and I found myself eating Chipotle, drinking a beer and watching a Food Network Challenge (Dr. Seuss cakes!) in peace. Did I overstep my bounds? Probably. It still remains unclear whether they were supposed to be invited in the first place.  

I guess all I know for sure is that the birthday boy wanted my kids to come and my kids really wanted to go, so all parental politics aside, I'd say all is well. Have I damaged my reputation among the mommy set? Maybe. Should I care? Probably not. 

The moral of this story is: Be pushy. Pushy wins.