This Mom Wants To Know Why Parents Don’t RSVP To Kid’s Birthday Parties Anymore
"I'm just so confused because when I was a kid in the 90s, we all had ragers."
When I was little, my mom would throw my birthday parties at our house. She’d serve pizza and cake. We’d play games. We’d have dance parties. Every kid in the neighborhood would swing by. They were always simple but never dull. All I really needed was my friends and some sweets. The parties were loud and plentiful with people (including all my family).
Nowadays, kids’ birthday parties seem to be a bit different, and one mom is totally confused about when birthday party culture changed, questioning why parents don’t even bother to RSVP anymore.
“Are parents so socially disconnected that they just like don't want to have any interaction with outside parents?” TikTok user @aislebeauty asked in her viral video.
“If you, as a parent, get an invitation to someone else's party, it's just courtesy to respond ... I am planning my daughter's fifth birthday party ... Now let me tell you how hard it's been to invite kids from our class.”
She then expressed her frustration over the number of RSVPs she received over two weeks after several attempts to get the word out about the party.
“First off, I've probably cut out six different invitations over the past two weeks to hand out to either parents or children or put them in their backpacks. Six different invitations. I also had the teacher take a picture and send it to the parental app that we all get notifications from. We probably have like 24 kids in our class. Guess how many people have actually RSVP'd? Four. Four!” she exclaimed.
“And these are kids that my kid sees every day. So as a parent, if you get invited to something, just respond. I just want my kid to have a great party. Is this normal?”
After her video gained traction, several TikTok users tried to explain why parents don’t RSVP like they used to while also validating her feelings about a shift in birthday party culture.
“My kids are 18 and 23 now but back in their day YES, everyone responded. People are so different now and all parties were at our home, piñatas were always a hit for the kids and a jumper/ slides,” one user wrote.
Another said, “I feel like parents these days don’t let their kids have social lives if it interrupts theirs. I’ve tried so hard to help my seven y/o social butterfly to make friends and parents are NOT receptive.”
“I think people are exhausted, stretched thin & this is where they often drop the ball. I have 4 kids. I get txts, emails, apps, class fb groups, insta pages, sharepoint. Too much & doing my best,” one user admitted.
Another wrote that another difference when it comes to birthday parties now and then is that most of them are not drop-off, meaning parents have to stick around.
“Parents used to be able to drop kids off at parties but now they’re expected to stay and supervise their own kid, and almost no one wants to spend their Saturday afternoon at a stranger’s house,” one user wrote.
Another user noted that two things can be true: parents can be burned out, but still make some choices (to our chagrin) that are best for our kids, like RSVPing “yes” to the birthday party.
“Am I incredibly introverted and quiet, yes. Do I know any parents in my daughter’s class. No. Will I always go to a party my kids invited to. Yes,” they wrote.
