Post Party Questions

[lesliepear]

Alan had his 6th birthday party in a bowling alley today. It was a success - everyone was happy.

But I have 2 problems based on things that happened.

1) At home we opened all the presents and I helped Alan put some together. One present was a toy pirate ship - an off brand knock off of a Playmobile toy. I was trying to assemble. I was trying to hook the plastic rigging to the plastic mast - I accidentally pushed too hard on the mast and it snapped in 1/2. Unfortunately since it was an off brand toy - "Agglo" made in China I have no idea where it came from to replace it. The gift giver was a classmate of my sons - should I contact the parents and tell them what happened and ask where I can return it for repair/replacement? I didn't see a gift receipt in the package.

2) Of the children that RSVP'ed to the party, three didn't show up. I had made up good bags for them. Two of them are Alan's classmates, one of which asked yesterday if they could come. I said yes - they claimed they told the teacher (the teacher later mentioned it an e-mail). Should I give the 3 bags to the kids, or just use them for whatever I want.

Comments

[marys-second.livejournal.com]

I'd say write the toy off as a loss and keep the bags.

[dstroy.livejournal.com]

write it off as a loss. Must have gotten sick or parents were sick...
I find the ones who show up without an RSVP more irritating.

[lunameow.livejournal.com]

I'd give them the bags. They're kids. It's not their fault their parents didn't bring them for whatever reason.

[rubyreader.livejournal.com]

Is there any way at all to glue the broken piece? Or replace it with something else? If there is no way to contact the company I would probably let it go. It may offend the parents if you mention it if you do not know them well.
As far as the bags, I would only give them to the absent children if you can do it without the other classmates seeing them since it likely to cause hurt feelings.

[goodjoan]

If Alan really likes the toy, I'd call them up and thank them for coming, then mention that he loves the toy and you'd love to know where they got it, so you could get him some more set like it, or get some for his cousins who are also into that theme. If it's a local place, go by and try to exchange it, if it's not, oh well, maybe he can play without that part, or you could try to glue it with some model glue or nail glue.

I say keep the bags if you can use the contents, they are a thank you for attending. As a parent, if I missed a party I wouldn't expect the party mom to make an effort to get me the goody bag. So unless you find out they missed the party because they were in the ER or something and you want to let them have it, I'd just keep it.

[luvmom.livejournal.com]

I would let the broken toy go and not contact the parents.

As for the bags, I would keep them.
They are for the kids that show up.

[yeoww.livejournal.com]

I'd not worry about the broken toy, and I'd give the bags to the kids. It's not their fault that their parents didn't honor an RSVP!

It's maddening, though. I remember the huge Chuckie Cheese party I gave for Hannah, back in the days when I could afford to pay for such a thing! I reserved and purchased based on the number of RSVPs and then something like 6 people didn't show up. As it turned out, about 8 people who had NOT RSVP'd did show up, which more than offset the number of attendees, but I'd pulled together individualized goodie bags (yep, crazy!) for each kid. *sigh*