My belated but official rant about people who do not understand what “RSVP” means.
Maybe they do understand, but they just don’t care. No matter. I’m here to sound off about it.
Spawn’s party was quite possibly the best party we have given thus far. And I say the best because I was not in charge of it. We had the party at the zoo, and the zoo provided a party host who took the little hooligans and orchestrated the whole party. I happily trailed along behind, making sure no one got separated from the group. There was a zoo tour, a chance to feed some of the animals (have you ever seen a hippo eat apples? it’s not for the easily nauseated), a chance to meet and touch some animals, and finally a party room with cake and drinks, which were provided, served and cleaned up by the zoo staff. At the end I pulled out my checkbook and wrote a check and everyone went home postitively thrilled with the party. Including me.
However.
My past experience with RSVPing has led me to adopt an attitude of “if they don’t call and say they’re not coming, then I plan on them showing up.” Since of course most people assume that RSVP means they only have to call if they’re not coming. (If you think this is what RSVP mean, let me assure you that you do not have it right.) I err on the side of caution. This stance eliminates a lot of angst on my part, and believe me, I need to reduce the amount of angst in my life.
I’d had enough response to at least feel comfortable with the number of children I definately knew would be there, so that Spawn wouldn’t have to suffer a party with no guests. But there were three children whose parents I never heard from that I, using my formula, thought would show up.
Not one of them showed up. My mother, bless her soul, even waited for them to straggle in at the front gate for half an hour before deciding to give it up and join the rest of the party in progress.
If you’ve been reading this blog any length of time at all, you know that I have zero patience for people who are rude. As far as I’m concerned, Rude is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. A certain amount of social ignorance I can handle, because hey, I’m just as guilty of ignorance as the next guy sometimes. But to not reply to a RSVP when you know damn good and well you aren’t coming? RUDE.
These people have been duly noted in my File of Rudeness and it is entirely possible they will not receive another invitation from me, ever. This may not be any great loss as far as they’re concerned. But I am at least giving myself the satisfaction of a preemptive snub. Because that’s just the kind of person I am.
– Mox
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