For fun, those of us around the lunch table at work read "Ask Amy" which is a Dear Abby type column in the Seattle Times. In light of recent festivities, I think you will find a good laugh reading this as well:

Dear Amy: We just celebrated my daughter's first birthday with a wonderful party at a lovely catering hall. We had live entertainment, food, an open bar for the adults, flowers, balloons, favors —- you name it!


I spent months planning for this party to make it a perfect event. This is my third child and every party has been a big event like this one. I put a lot of time into planning my children's parties and thoroughly enjoy doing it.

My problem is rude guests!

I had more than half of the party (20 families) respond several days past the RSVP date (I sent out the invitations six weeks ahead of time so they had plenty of time to respond). They showed up 1-2 hours late to the party with no apology or explanation (and some left early). These guests took it upon themselves to sit wherever they wanted, even when I had place cards with assigned seating that I spent several hours organizing. These perpetrators do things like this at every party. As much as I love to throw parties for my children, I find myself disappointed, insulted and feeling used in the end.

Should I stop having these parties or should I continue doing what my children and I enjoy and ignore the rudeness? Please tell me what I should do.  — Frustrated Mother


Dear Frustrated: It's somewhat refreshing to learn that even in this tough economy there are still people who throw cotillions for 1-year-olds.

You need a reality check. You also need a reality show. If you had your own show, your guests' rudeness — and the pettiness of your reaction — would be highlighted for the amusement of the rest of us.

Every time you host one of these extravaganzas you emerge with the same frustrations, so you should do an objective post mortem to figure out what you could do differently in order to have a different result. I suggest that you adjust your expectations somewhat regarding timely RSVPs, consider doing away with your seating chart and adjust the length of your event. You may notice that all of my suggestions involve you lightening up.