Surprise! That’s exactly what I felt this past weekend when my 3-year-old, Hudson, and I, walked into our building’s playroom (which is a daily stop for the parents who live in the building) and stumbled into a young child’s birthday party. A child, who coincidentally, plays with my son quite often in that very same play room but a party that, surprisingly (no pun intended!) he was not invited to. My son immediately yelled “Birthday Party!” because like all kids, he loves himself a birthday party. Once the birthday girl and my son fixed eyes on each other they immediately ran towards the other and started to play (as I said, they are playroom buddies!). I, on the other hand, felt awkward around all the parents who were invited to the party and kept introducing themselves to me…as though I were also one of the guests. As you can imagine, the birthday girl’s dad (and my neighbor) was pretty embarrassed at this turn of events and immediately began offering mea culpas and nervously saying that he didn’t have my email otherwise he would’ve invited us yadda, yadda, yadda. Dude relax, you are not obligated to invite us to your daughter’s birthday party. Yes, it was slightly odd, but I thought he should simply acknowledge it and move on. No need to have a pity party (again with the puns!), as we have plenty of birthdays to attend on our calendar. Nevertheless, I wanted out of this awkward situation, but my son was having too much fun. I know this won’t be the first or last time something like this happens, and that my son won’t always be oblivious to the circumstances, but I decided to stay and shake it off. Seeing passed these uncomfortable moments and overcoming the insecurities that manifest themselves as a result is something I will teach my son to do as he gets older, but for this one time, I simply let my little buddy enjoy playing with his friend at her birthday party. What would you do if your kid wasn’t invited to a friend’s party? Tweet me at @yeseniaalmone.
Birthday party politics
istock
