I’m curious what other parents’ policies are on other birthday parties.  Nothing is more sucky than having to take your kid to a party for a kid you don’t know and parents who you also don’t know.  You hope that you might recognize another kid’s parents at the party so you can at least have idle chatter with someone while your precious seedling gets hopped up on sugary confections.

So, as a parent who is hosting a party, what is your obligation to a parent you don’t know?  Is it a simple “Hi, I’m [Parent A], [Child’s] dad” or do you need to make small talk for a short time?  Obviously all I do is the former and then find myself settling into my comfort zone with parents who I know from before.  Do my responsibilities extend beyond the simple “Hi and goodbyes”?  The three parents who I didn’t know actually all wound up talking amongst each other, so it wasn’t like they were twiddling their thumbs.  Chances are, of they were by themselves the entire time I’d probably try to initiate at least some kind of superficial conversation.

One funny side note to this weekend’s party was a conversation I had with two twins that are about Ally’s age.  They got a puppy a few months ago and this past week they had him fixed so he couldn’t “go forth and multiply”.  In the middle of me talking to them while they had a snack, one of the boys just blurts out “OUR DOG’S PENIS IS BLEEDING.”  Let me tell ya – that was one of the hardest times I have ever had to suppress guffawing out loud.  I knew exactly what he was talking about but the way he brought it up, non-sequitur style, was absolutely perfect.  His mom, kind of embarrassed, said “Yeah, that one was hard to explain to them”.

Good times.  Except for the poor boy dog robbed of his seed-spreading manhood.