Look.
This is me. Your friend.
I won’t steer you wrong.
When you pick up that phone, and you get ready to call someone?
Or when you need to talk to somebody?
Stop.
Stop, and THINK about what you are planning on saying.
Not the phraseology, no. Although getting that polysyllabic shit down right is important, no lie.
No, stop and think about what you are about to say, and try… for the love of God TRY and imagine exactly what message you are about to convey.
Honesty is great. I love honesty. I’m a big fan.
Integrity. Ethics. Woot all the way.
But seriously, sometimes, you can lie by omission. It’s bloody well all right. Nobody really minds.
I’ll share with you an example. See if you can follow along with this.
Say you have a child in kindergarten. This child, by a remarkable stroke of coincidence, is the same age as my son, Alex.
Perhaps the child is even in Alex’s class. I’m not saying she is, I’m not saying she isn’t.
And all the parents have each others phone number from a shared out list the school provided everyone, and shit. So, like, they can call you up out of nowhere for some strange reason known only to the lords and masters of the PTA.
And you, this hypothetical 6 year old girls’ mother, decide to call Alex’s mom late on a Sunday evening.
You are calling to tell Alex’s mom that your darling child is having a birthday on Wednesday of this very week, at a big fancy indoor playplace with inflatable slides and party cake and reserved rooms and the whole nine yards. And your purpose in calling is to invite Alex to this extravaganza.
That’s awesome!
Now, here is the key.
If you are calling so late on Sunday evening because you only invited half of the kindergarten class in the first place, and only at the very last minute decided to go ahead and invite the rest of the class of kids too… because you suddenly realized they would all be talking about it the next day and half the class would feel, rightly, excluded and unloved…
YOU DON’T HAVE TO TELL ALEX’S MOM THIS ON THE DAMN PHONE!!!!!
It’s okay to lie by omission.
You can just say, “Sorry for calling so late, Claire’s birthday is Wednesday and she’s having a party at this playplace over on Wilshire and 23rd. It’s from 6 to 8 PM. Can Alex come?”
That’s all. No more. It’s cool.
Oh, and for bonus points, when we ask you “Should we bring a gift for Claire? What kind of things is she in to?”, do not say “Oh no, you don’t need to bring a gift. Not at all.”
Not when it turns out you not only told other parents to bring gifts, but actually offered them suggestions for what Claire might like.
And then, at the playplace, have Claire sit on a giant inflatable throne (omigod I am not EVEN lying) while ALL the kids invited to the party sat on their butts in front of her, their hands raised in the air, while Claire picked them one at a time to go to the gift table, grab the gifts they had brung, and take them to Claire to be opened and, OMIGOD I AM STILL NOT KIDDING had one of the attendants of the playplace write down who brought what ON A CLIPBOARD.
Can you even imagine? Can you even IMAGINE the horror a small 5 year old child would feel, if as they all sat there, each child was picked one by one to go bring thier gift to Claire, and you… you were the only child whose cheap ass parents brought NOTHING???
Don’t let Claire’s mom be you.
Seriously. People like me, we have guns. Play these kind of games with the precious feelings of our child, and we may just snap and hunt your ass down in the street.
Just… just stop and THINK, people!
P.S. Oh, oh hell yes, we brought gifts. Even unemployed and saving every dime, we brought gifts. In a very pretty gift bag with a picture of Tinkerbell on it. We may not be interested in fighting this little war of prestige these soccer moms have staked out as their battlefield, but if you want to bring it, we’ll show you fire and manuever, sweet cheeks.
I don’t understand parents anymore. I sure as sugar would never have been allowed to do something so humiliating to my friends at a party. A freaking throne??? Making the other kids raise their hands to give their gifts?? What the hell are parents thinking anymore? Is this the reason there are so many spoiled rotten rude little jerks on the Internet with huge feelings of entitlement? What happened in the last 10 years?
sorry about the double post…I am a bit fired up and accidently double-clicked.
Oh dear goodness…
I hope it all worked out.
Hilariously written though.
I agree with Phae. Is this *even* the same planet I grew up on?? This spoiled mentality the mother is giving this child will not go away. Believe me, I know plenty of supposed “adults” that never get over the entitlement.
Whatever happened to just cake and punch and playing games at the birthday boy or girl’s house?
Wow, just…..wow. I personally get terrified for my son when he goes to parties. Bad experiences when I was a kid show through in trying make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to him.
On the flip side, he asked me if we could have his birthday this year at Texas Road House. The steak joint. He is seven. I chuckled, and told him that wasn’t really a birthday kind of place where all his friends could go. He responded with “that’s where we had your birthday, and all your friends were there.”
Doh!
Man the guns, Mr. Coppernut!!!!!!
Oh no no no… the throne isn’t the fault of the mom, oh no.
No, that throne, a huge inflatable throne, was already there… it was part of the party room. A permanent fixture.
The company they used, called “Pump It Up”, has a large indoor playplace filled with inflatable bouncy rooms and obstacle courses and slides, and attached to the play area are the party rooms where they have tables to serve cake, drinks and snacks, and at one end is the table where all the presents are organized, the throne sitting right next to it, and a steel rack for the placing of the opened gifts. And a rolling trash can for the discarded wrapping paper.
It’s all organized and regimented, and frankly they ran the operation like a well-oiled machine. The guy with the clipboard was obviously there as a normal part of the company’s operation. Love the idea or hate it, they did it damn well.
The insanity of spending from $400 to thousands to tens of thousands for a one night birthday party is a topic for another day, I’m sure. In a world where there was a short lived tv show about the ways the rich provide ‘shut in’ nights in exclusive mall toy stores for their child’s birthday party with their friends, SLEEPOVERS IN TOY STORES for Gods sake, I can’t really say much about it. Clearly, this is not the world we live in. We can’t even tell what the weather is like in that world.
In my world, on your birthday, you invite some friends of your child to your house, which you busted your ass cleaning so as not to lose face before the enemy (I mean, the other parents), you have a cake that you baked which you tried to decorate in a cute way (Cassie is extremely good at this… the cake baking and shaping, that is), and there are presents, and cute little gift bags for the kids with items picked from the dollar rack in Target, and then they run free indoors or outdoors playing.
And by some friends, I mean friends of the actual child, not every damn kid the child has ever met or gone to school with.
Oh, and a link to the place, I’m not making this up… http://www.pumpitupparty.com/
If you watch their promo video on that page, you can see shots of a party room, with the throne itself against the wall.
See! You think I’m lying when I write these damn things, don’t you!
But I’m not!
That poor kid is probably going to grow up to be a monster, unless some miracle of temperment, fate or Hand of God interferes. :(
When I was growing up I got invited to one of these types of parties. My Dad was an ex-marine and a tow truck driver. So I was already well versed in all of the words children should not say.
My Dad’s boss invites him and the family to come to a birthday party for his granddaughter. We too were in financial trouble. Matter of fact we lived at the tow yard that they stored all of the cars at. However still we managed to bring a little something.
Now Dawn was a very spoiled child and didn’t mind letting others know. Gift after gift was opened and tossed to the side. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a nice Tricycle. So I went over to check it out. As I strutted around the Trike I found it necessary to hop on and give it test drive.
I hadn’t moved 3 feet when Dawn stopped opening presents ran over to me and tried to push me off. She started yelling and screaming that this was her toy. Her parents did nothing about this outburst. I have had and may always have a short fuse. I snap, the Trike is now over my head and I am screaming “You want your Fing toy” then it goes flying across the living room.
Needless to say it was time to go my parents freaked out apologized to everyone and we were running out the door. All of a sudden we are no longer running as Dad is standing eye to eye with his Boss. “Jack, I think what your son did was the funniest thing I have ever seen. That girl is a spoiled Brat.”
Not sure why I didn’t get to go to anymore parties when I was growing up.
God America is SUCH a superficial country. Well the only thing that really matters in a kids upbringing is the love, and the example on how to live that’s set primarily by the parents.
It’s like a scary glimpse into how the other half lives. I can’t say I miss living in the Twin Cities burbs whatsoever. At least now all I have to deal with is a small handful of doctor’s wives. The rest of us think going to Wisconsin is international travel.
My parents gave up on the (semi)elaborate birthday parties early on in my childhood. For most of my growing up years birthdays were mom asking “What do you want for dinner?”, a couple of presents, and a simple cake with frosting and number candles.
Now that I’m an adult birthdays are mom asking “Where do you want to go to eat?”, and a couple of presents. Honestly we could dispense with the presents and just spend time as a family and I’d be just as happy.
Hopefully this child won’t be permanently scarred by the bad manners of her parents.
This is insane and unfortunately strenghtens the prejudices I have about the way you have birthday parties for your kids in the US. Seen it in movies and been horrified. So… it really exists.
Makes me think about how we talk about how people behave like (ugly word) in Azeroth, how badly they treat each other from time to time. It really only reflects real life.
Being a parent myself I can identify with you. Trust me, if someone humiliates my kid in that way I’d turn into a tiger.
I remember my hugely elaborate 12th birthday party (’81). I had two friends over and we went bowling. Went home, had cake, and they spent the nite. Crazy, huh?
Whatever happened to the good ol’ days? Society today, in a lot of ways, really makes me sad.
~John
I just don’t understand one thing:
If Claire and your son are not friends (meaning hanging out a lot together, having secrets and such) just another kid in the school AND her mom was a jackass in the phone, why did you accept the invitation?
Parents are grooming their kids at a young age for entitlement. It is a shame that this continues, and these children are our future. We as parents, want better for our children then we had growing up. That being said, what happened to the ideals of family, friends,and sharing. He/She who dies with the most toys does not win. BBB, an enjoyable read as always. Your humor improves a crappy work day. Keep it up.
Gevlon, your implied condemnation of our doing the very thing we say we would not do for our child phails.
Very simple; whatever our personal feelings may be about the situation and how the woman handled it, and whatever games she may have been playing, or simply how thoughtless she may have been…
It’s not ABOUT us.
It’s about our son, and what is best for him.
And our son doesn’t know a damn thing except that there was a party, he played with all his classmates, he had some cake, some chips, some orange pop, took part in a group activity with his peers, and had a great, but exhausting time.
There is no other issue worthy of consideration. You do not punish your child because you think another child’s mom acted the twit.
Well, you shouldn’t, anyway.
What we choose to do, when it is time for our own son’s birthday, is a different story. Then we can be free to limit things to a more personal, family oriented occasion. To include the class, we will probably provide cupcakes for his class on that day of school, and maybe even some small grab bags, again with items from the dollar store. But at home I am sure the event will be one of family, and perhaps his best friend from school.
But the other parent set the venue, and we had the choice of allowing our son to enjoy everything in blessed innocense with all his school friends, or be denied having fun that the other kids were going to have.
Would you really… I mean REALLY have prevented your own son from going?
I mean, again. Stop and think.
People lack tact.
Life would be alot easier if people would just say what they mean AND mean what they say.
Mind games are stupid.
BBB…LOL I’ve been to Pump It Up and it’s a blast. You’re definately not kidding about the inflatable throne. I’ve seen it. Thankfully, my experience was a family party.
Birthday parties around my house usually consist of frantically running around cleaning up (like you), homemade cake, and a couple of friends invited to spend the night.
It astounds me that, as a product of the 80s, how absolutely shocked I am at the mentality of parents today. Maybe it was my parents who, like you, BBB, understood the concept of true friends, not putting up a front or acting better than others, and just having a good time.
I remember that my birthday parties were often just 4-5 people. Not because I couldn’t invite other people, but that I didn’t invite other people. Why would I want other kids / teens to come over when I didn’t really like them or want to hang out with them anyway? We’d often just play catch, a video game, a board game, or some other way to pass the time and have fun.
My wife’s best friend is a nanny to children being raised in a manner like you mention – having a sense of entitlement. These kids are in for a rude awakening if their little protective bubble is ever burst. And I personally pity them for putting so much stock in social standing and monetary things. Sure, those things might be nice, but at the end of the day, I’ll take my small house, modest car, and endless hours of laughs and fun with friends over going to bed comforted that I’m “better” than everyone else.
I also have to agree with the way you handled it – if my kid wanted to go, had fun, and was unaware of the stupidity of the twit, then I’d have made the same choice in a heartbeat. But heaven help any parent who tried to tried to make my child feel like a “lesser”.
I wholeheartedly agree with your general point, but I think that you should have stopped and thought before you posted the passing comment about guns. I think 99% of your readership knows exactly what you meant by that, but be careful about making remarks like that on the Internet. Especially when the commentary concerns people that clearly possess little-to-no common sense.
I never had fancy birthday parties. Indeed, as soon as I was old enough to make a coherent argument I stopped having my school classmates invited to the celebration at my house.
I’d have a few friends over and that was pretty much it. My traditions of hosting my own NYE party run along pretty much the same lines.
Most of my friends had the same sort of stuff. Nobody was from a rich family, nobody was living in poverty. I got nice presents, my parents loved me and it all worked out.
(And yes, I live in the United States. But I’m 34, so perhaps this is a new thing? Though…maybe not. I did attend a ridiculously ostentatious bar mitzvah once. It was pretty much a small private indoor carnival.)
Oh man.
As a parent, I can not even begin to think of how I’m going to deal with shit like this. Do I bring something horrible and tentacley to the kid? really, that wouldn’t be right….. it’s not their fault their parent is a douche. Do I find some way to express my own horror to the parents alone? And how do I prevent my son from thinking this kind of crap is “okay”? It’s adult nuanced power games like this that totally warp a kids worldview.
I do not want my child, my happy little guy, to play these fucking reindeer games, and us getting sucked into them? One of the very few things about being a dad that scares the crap out of me.
pardon my cussin, but this really touched a nerve.
Wow. Just… wow.
Good on ya, BBB, and heaven help that little princess.
Jokingly threatening about guns and hunting a person?
There’s a line, you crossed it.
Goodbye BBB.
@ bobloblaw- So what if someone does take him serious and/or get offended? What is the worst-case scenario? The worst I foresee is someone crying over the electronic highway to an audience who *pretends* to care, at most.
@ The Alien- My limited understanding of Hebrew culture and practices leads me to believe that a bar mitzvah is much more than just a birthday party, so I think its pretty reasonable that such celebrations are relatively lavish. Spending copious cash to make a spoiled brat king/queen for a day is a wholly different animal in my mind, and I suspect it came right around the time we started telling kids that failure and success are all the same, and started rewarding as such. I blame self-help parenting authors.
@ BBB- I honestly believe the parent’s “accidental” faux paus was an intentional attempt at a slight. But that’s just me. My inner redneck (i.e. Angry, belligerent, and stupid) comes out pretty easily, so you handled that situation much better than I would have.
That postscript was quite possibly the funniest thing I’ve read today. “Fire and Manuever” indeed.
@Gevlon – Right or Wrong, for Good or for Ill…creating a situation where your child is the ONLY child that wasn’t at the party is an awful thing to do to a kid. BBB touched on this already, but his opinion of the mother (or even the “princess”) is not a good reason to scar his son. Exclusion HURTS when you are 6, and parents feel an obligation to shield their children from unnecessary pain.
To BBB and Cassie: Good on ya. Seems to me that you are doing the right things for the right reasons. My sister recently moved with her 2 young children (3 and almost 6) to a really scale part of the Bay Area, and is having to fight the temptation to slap the local “helicopter parent” population on a regular basis. Tough to fight those urges, but what is best for the kids is simply best.
Best of luck on the job front, BBB.
-R
This isn’t my blog, but…
I don’t want all of your non-American readers thinking that all American parents are like this. ‘Sure’, they might think, ‘Of course BBB isn’t like that, and there’s a few others, but America’s going down the tubes and that’s why.”
There are people who will raise their children to entitlement and spoil them everywhere. That’s fine, let them. Their rude awakening will come, and in the meantime I know many parents who act like BBB and keep the best interests of their children in mind. The problem is I know many parents who go even farther than most good parents (and there are many good parents) to ensure their childrens’ safety.
These parents are hiding, and I know many of them personally. They are hiding because they are afraid their children will be taken away from them. Their parental styles are so far out of the norm that cases could be made (and have been made in divorce courts) that the way they care for their children is endangerment. I’ve also met these children, been their camp counselor and mentor. They are BY FAR the best socially adjusted people I know and are healthy as a horse to boot. I might not agree with everything the parents do, but I respect their right to raise their children as they see fit. They’re obviously doing something right, I think these children will grow to be successful and productive adults.
Those children who are spoiled rotten?
Probably not so much.
Keep up the good work BBB & Cassie, it’s a rotten game to have to play, battling with petty adults who never learned how to grow up, but you sure do have your eye on the prize. ;)
Lol @ roguedubb.
Well, clearly you ain’t been a reader of mine for ANY time whatsoever if that is what you think I’ve said that crossed the line.
Heck, I actively TRY to remove asshats and folks without a sense of proportion, or humor, from my readership. This is just your way of telling me I won another round.
See, it only offends if you honestly believe I’m the kind of person who would actually do that, or would actually advocate doing that. If you believe that I am that kind of person, and you have been reading for a while… then you, sir, are a moron.
And now I shall return to reading Penny Arcade book Four. I think I’m about to the point where Pork After Hours wants to kill Tycho for not being at the guys night out. Kill him with his knife, called “Mr. Stabby.”
Somehow, I shall refrain from believing that they were advocating that people kill people with knives for being late. I shall, in fact, find humor in the outrageousness.
I love people who tell me that I’ve lost them as a reader.
So? Sometimes I suck. This isn’t something new. If what I do isn’t amusing or informing you… by all means, please, don’t waste your time reading it. I am continually amazed that people DO read my blog. After all, I’m just being myself, and I have it on excellent authority that I’m a horrible person.
Oh, and last night’s Top Chef? It’s a cooking competition. If someone fails to make an edible dish, I don’t want to see the greeter being the one sent home. Just saying.
Oooh, and Bobloblaw, I do want to say you have a definite point… and thank you for caring enough to make it. I also got a nice email telling me that I may want to watch that kind of thing.
But, see you saw it and thought it was pretty out there… but you could handle it. It didn’t send you screaming from the room.
Yet.
Now, if you think THAT bothered people, allow me to loosen up a bit.
I have long joked with my friends that I don’t hunt animals. Every deer season, I sigh dramatically and lament “Oh, if only the animals had guns, too. Damn, that’d be AWESOME”
The moment in Crocodile Dundee? Where the jackass hunters in the jeep are shining Kangaroos? And Dundee is out in the woods, grabs a dead kangaroo, hides behind it, sticks his rifle in the Kangaroos arms and opens fire on the hunters?
That shining moment where one of the hunters, standing there taking a piss, says “here, shine your light on that cheeky bugger.” And one of the hunters shines the light into the bushes on the kangaroo and says, “Here, the little bastards got a gun!”
OMIGOD, that is one of the absolute best moments in cinema, EVER.
Oh, and I ain’t done. The other joke I make every deer season, when someone asks me if I’m going hunting that year, is to say “Nah, the targets all wear bright orange. There’s no sport. Maybe I’ll go out for bow season.”
There. You want me to go there? I can go there. Eight years in the Marines, you think I can’t make those jokes? Oh, hell yes.
I don’t know where my street cred went, I really don’t. I wrote “Crap” in guild chat one day and was told by Shrinn, “Oh wow, BBB used foul language, he’s human too!” Now I make a normal joke for me and the interwebs freaks out.
Oh, and for those of you that, thankfully, don’t know what shining is.
Shining is where a bunch of real sportsmen take a jeep, grab a flashlight or spotlight with a TON of candlepower, roar around out in the woods or fields, shining the light around.
Animals, when caught in the light, freeze in place and stare into the light. It’s a natural instinct for many animals. Even with the roar of the engine and thundering music and yells, when an animal is caught in the light, even on the run, they freeze and stare into the light.
The light is reflected off their eyes, being revealed as two bright, shing points of light glowing in the darkness.
The sportsmen then shoot at the two points of light.
Call me what you want, I didn’t come up with the idea of shining rabbits or deer, and then decide to call it ‘hunting’.
For those of you concerned about the image of those crazy Americans, rest assured that the children’s entertainment industry can be messed up all over the place. And you don’t need a slick team and blow up throne to hit all of the wrong notes in relation to kids. I have seen plenty of people get that mix just right with nothing more elaborate than the ingredients that bear outlined. Managing to do it in an over the top way might be good fodder for the reality TV industry, but certainly not required.
Hi BBB !
I really hope I’m wrong.
But that girl? At the rate that she’s going, I bet she’s going to end up snotty, entitled, and feel like everything is beneath her and she doesn’t have to do anything at all to get anywhere.
I hope I’m wrong, and that her moral fiber grows and she doesn’t end up like that.
…
But that crap is STUPID.
Perhaps a fur-lined tiara liberally tainted with lice would be an adequate gift for such a throne-worthy princess… I’m sure the school nurse would gladly trade the necessary time with clippers for the privilege of recalibrating a potentially redeemable child. Nicely written BBB. Do plot the social downfall of said soccer-mom and update your worthy readers on the princesses descent into social denegration and stripperdom to pay for ‘mummy issues’ therapy. :D
Ok… I apologize for being lazy and not reading all the comments on this, so if this is a repeat… well, we know why.
But as devil’s advocate, the note taking at that place (we have one in St. Cloud as well, although we call it bounce depot) is a service they provide so that they can write up thank you cards later and personalize them a little more (and with the price of those parties, the thank you notes had better made of gold or something). So while it might smack of tacky, there is a reason for it that’s not so sinister.
My neice had one of those parties, but it sounds like she handled it a little better… they had a gift pile instead and just asked who brought it when she opened it on her throne… then invited people to sit with her on the throne (since she’s petite) and all the kids would get pictures on the throne together (since there were alot of petite children)
The mom’s calling attitude and such… well… nothing I can devilishly advocate for that… so have fun human hunting… oh wait, that’s the DHETA quest.
Oh wow that was a chuckle. I took my son to one of them parties that a girl in his class had, I was kind of worried that he would think this was normal for a birthday party, afterward s while driving home he’s telling me all about the fun he had, then he stops and says “It was a great party but no way do I want that for mine, its way over the top” I nearly drove off the road laughing. He perfers a small party at home and the rest of the day/night playing with the other kids and their airsoft guns.
For my son and two girls I usually had a party at the house when they were really young, my oldest daughter (15) now has a party and sleepover in the Hotel I manage (her and about 6-10 friends) in a suite with pizza, movies on TV and ice cream. I know they will be watched over by the staff.
No mother around so I hope I am doing it right by the girls especially, I do have a tendency to overdo it if they ask.
Btw, love reading yours and BRK’s blogs even though I play a SPriest.
@BBB: I don’t have a child so I can only remember my own childhood. All my birthdays were celebrated with 2-4-6 friends, number was the subject of how many friends I had. I never had the idea to invite a non-friend there. I also never had the idea of “being excluded” from parties of non-friends.
I clearly remember from the third grade that a rich kid handled me a printed invitation to his party. His parents were there so were mine. (I guess it was on purpose, it was the parent who wanted to see the reaction of other parents to the printed invitation with a live performance of a child-music band on it)
I barely knew him so I asked why? “I invite ALL my friends” (the whole class) he said. “I’m not your friend” I replied naturally, with the tact of a 9 years old. I never felt I missed out something by not going to a stranger’s party.
There are 30M kids in USA. All of them have a birthday. Most of them have party. Your son miss 99.9999% of these parties. I’m sorry if I miss something that is obvious to Americans but why had Claire’s party be different? I’d understand if Claire would be your son’s friend, but it seems she is just another random kid out of the 30M.
OMG, just OMG I just can’t believe that some people are so, so…I don’t even know what word to use…superficial?! self absorbed? selfish? egotisical?
@roguedubb – CHILL!
Im from the UK, a small mining town in west Yorkshire to be specific. When i was a kid parties were an excuse for my parents to get together with there friends and have a few beers at the local pub. there would be a ‘Disco’, a buffet and maybe a game of pass the parcel but apart from that we (the kids) were left to our own devices and we loved every minuet of it.
Im still friends with most of my parents friends kids, we still hang around together, drink in the same pub we had our parties in, i Evan play In a band with a couple of em. it created a great sense of community. i think its a shame this sorta thing has stopped.
when i get invited to my nieces and nephews birthdays they are very similar to the one you described but for me it always looks like the parent trying to top each other, who can throw the most lavish party, who arrives in the biggest car, who gets the nicest gift etc. its depressing to see, even the kids seem to be bored by it
“then invited people to sit with her on the throne (since she’s petite) and all the kids would get pictures on the throne together”
Now THAT is a creative, kind, and cool way to handle a situation where the environment itself is pushing the “princess” or “better than thou” mindset into the birthday kid.
@Gevlon
You go ahead and accept the invitation because at this point you have two choices:
1. Let your kid be the ONLY kid in his class the next day who isn’t talking about the party or sharing in the remembrances of it, and who is also the one being pointed out and snickered at for not being “good enough” to go, or being “too poor” to go (kids, especially ones like these, are incredibly cruel and “Lord of the Flies”-ish)
2. Swallow your pride, take your kid to have some fun both at the party and the next day at school, and make a mental note to “accidentally” spill some red wine on the twit’s dress at the next available opportunity.
@BBB – ya did good. Might want to think about moving to a more realistic neighborhood, though. Do you ever see television crews for “Real Housewives of [your town here]” driving through? :P
Dear BBB,
Don’t take this personal, but please… let it go. You had a rant about RL events, which for some reasons sparks more controversy than a WoW rant. On the internet, people’s skins are thicker than usual. We like to carry either all our good things or all our bad things online. Look at you, most of your readers/commenters, BRK, and I hope to include myself as well, they bring their good sides to the plate. Asshats, well it’s clear what they bring.
When you get to real life, things get grey. People are not pure evil or pure good. What jumped into my mind when I read about the fact that you were asked not to bring a present, was that the mother maybe heared about you being unemployed and wanted to not inconvenience you. Of course she did that completely the wrong way, but that’s a social skills thing. That’s what I mean with grey.
So when you made your post on the blog about a Rl event, the grey area’s kicked in and some reactions where more black than you are used to. Please don’t get upset by that. Don’t let one post ruin your day!
I hope I made a valid and understandable argument and inspired you to take a deep breath and tank something with your face!
Kinds Regards,
Coen
@Roguedubb: If you HONESTLY think BBB is going to get his guns and hunt down a blatantly stupid mother for her childish popularity games, then you’re about as stupid as she is. Something tells me that BBB has a smart enough head on his shoulders to realize the difference between a joke and being serious. And I highly doubt he wants to go to prison for life over something as trivial as some spoiled kid’s birthday party and her obviously socially inept mother..
Moving on..
Kudos to you guys! You’re absolutely right in what you did. Alex does come first and props to you guys for the way you handled it. I don’t think there is a damn thing wrong with anything you said or did. /cheer
We had our kids shared party (3 and 5 with birthdays 2 days apart) at the local Pump It Up and it did not have this type of drama. We didn’t open the presents there, we just kept them on the gift table and opened them at home. We did do the group pictures in the throne thing, but other than parking the kids there for the birthday song and blowing out the candles, we really didn’t use the throne at all.
I thought it was nice because it was a nice group activity experience for the kids, and they move it along nicely so the kids don’t get bored or burned out. Since this was in November, its nice to have an indoor place to have the party where the kids can run around. We did invite all of the children from our kid’s pre-school classes, but at this age, that is how my kids define their “friends” (the space was for 25 kids, so why not fill it up).
I think Pump It Up is a nice place, but the experience is what you make of it….This party sounds like a drama nightmare.
It’s probably safe to say this kind of birthday celebration is not the norm. I mean, they happen. Obviously, they happen. But in my experience as a parent of three boys ages 10 to 15? Almost every birthday party consists of a handful of friends, cake, open gifts around the table . . . now go play kids! The parents that go all out take the party, still just a handful of kids, to a bowling alley or pizza place or something with an arcade and indoor play area, or if the weather is nice, maybe a park or beach with a grill. Wherever it’s held, the format is still the same. Eat. Presents. Run wild. It is a whole lot like the birthday parties I had as a kid about 30 years ago.
Or, I don’t know, maybe it’s a gender thing. My daughter is only 1 year old . . . so the whole party thing hasn’t been an issue yet for her. If I have anything to say about it, and as the parent I kinda’ plan on having something to say about it, her parties will be similar to her brothers’. Just, maybe, decorated a bit differently.
You silly man, you have lost nothing as far as I am concerned. I was jesting & attempting to be silly. “See, our guild leader IS human, folks, try to bare that in mind next time you want to chop him down at the knees in your mind or your tone of speaking with him” was the actual point of my little remark in guild chat then. I don’t think you said crap, I think you may have used the “other” word for it :P But please don’t rely upon my memory, just ask Fal/Grai….. I got brain damage at the moment, that’s my excuse!
And to reply to this actual post & not your “street cred” I just HAD to call up my son, John’s classmates mom & share this story with her & thank her for NOT being this ^^^ mom!!! :D
Lol. So as a rogue u jokingly stuns and procedes to stab them in the back. And worries about gun jokes? I had guns pointed at me, and actually seen people die. AND IT DIDNT FUCKEN BOTHER ME. Its his blog. ITs fun. GO BBB