Snubbed
or
It was an Oversight

June 27, 1999

I find myself in the middle of a very awkward situation. I would love to hear from any parent out there who has found themselves in a similar position.

Here's the deal. Friday night was Zoe's school recital. At that event I overheard one of the parents, the father of a girl we like quite a bit, talking to one of the other parents. He said something about the fact that the kiddy party was tomorrow. They moved out of hearing range so I never heard the rest. I didn't really give it any more thought.

Turn the clock ahead to Saturday morning. I am at the toy store buying a birthday gift for the little girl whose party Zoe is going to that afternoon. This little girl is the friend of one of my friends. Someone Zoe doesn't know at all. I ran into one of the mom's from Zoe's school at the store. "Oh," she said, "is Zoe going to Mimi's birthday party too?" "No," I said, "we're going to another party."

When I got home from the toy store I told Chuck about it. He is going to call over to Mimi's house to see what was up. He wants to punch out Mimi's dad. I want to punch out Mimi's dad too.

This is the deal: Mimi was invited and came to Zoe's birthday party. I like Mimi a lot. She's a nice little girl. I like Mimi's parents as well. Twice I've tried to set up play dates with Mimi and Zoe. The first time Mimi's mom said great, and we set it up for the next day. Zoe was totally jazzed. About 25 minutes later the phone rings and it's Mimi's dad. He said that since Mimi's mom just had a baby and Mimi has been staying with her grandmother for the last week they'd rather schedule the play date for another day so they can spend the next day doing family bonding kinda stuff. I totally understand and we reschedule for two weeks later. The day or so before the rescheduled play date Mimi's dad calls again and says that Sunday is family day and that they don't like to schedule play dates for Sunday's. We should reschedule. Again.

That was the last time we heard from them. Last Monday when I picked Zoe up from school, Zoe and Mimi came up to me, hand in hand, and they both asked me, practically at the same time, if Mimi could come over to play. All week I meant to call over to Mimi's to see if I could schedule a play date. I never got around to it.

We saw Mimi and her parents at a function at Zoe's school last Friday and neither of them as much as said hello to us. I didn't feel like setting up a play date right then.

At this Friday's event neither one as much as said hello.

Then I hear about this birthday party. Zoe doesn't know that she missed Mimi's party but I can tell you it's only a matter of time. All the other kids in her class seem to have gone. The little girl who came over today for a play date was there. I know they'll all be talking about it at school tomorrow.

When we had Zoe's birthday party we invited every single one of the kids in her class. Even the ones we know we don't like. It's only a party for goodness sake.

Do you suppose it was an oversight, or was Zoe blatantly snubbed? Should we call Mimi's parents and find out what's up, or just blow it off?

I'm pretty well beside myself about this. I just don't know what to do.

Writing about it is making me angry all over again.

Until next time. . .