"boy, five, sent £15.95 party no-show invoice"

I’m no expert but isn’t VAT due?
Also, look at that invoice number – how many kids didn’t turn up? 😆

Sorry if someone else has already mentioned this, I couldn’t be arsed reading the whole thread.

Poorly written on both sides, but a nice use of “none” by Tanya.

Foolish bint, that Julie.

This “story” is typical of the general media in the touch pad world in which we live. Attention grabbing headline that doesn’t really reflect the facts but gets you to click on the link. Most of this thread shows that many couldn’t even by arsed to actually click, they just drew their conclusions from the headline.
The Host booked an event at a cost of £15.95 per head. The no show kid’s family said he would attend and agreed to cover the cost. The no show then cost the Host £15.95 which she is rightly trying to claim back.
Think of it this way, it’s your birthday and you book a Karting event for 20 of your mates and they all agree to pay £50 as their share of the £1000 the event costs.
Would you just cover all the 50 quids of your “mates” who didn’t turn up for your “birthday party”?

This is awesome.

The real headline is: “Feckless, naive parent surprised that a young child doesn’t turn-up to birthday party, responds completely disproportionately”.

Anyone that ever arranges any sort of group activity involving an up-front payment KNOWS that people aren’t confirmed as attending until they hand over the cash.
You might trust your mates, but you certainly wouldn’t trust your child’s classmates (or their feckless parents who you don’t know from Adam*). Surely everyone certainly knows this by the time they are able to breed?

*it’s not known whether Adam attended either

The sixteen quid is just a tax on naivety.

Think of it this way, it’s your birthday and you book a Karting event for 20 of your mates and they all agree to pay £50 as their share of the £1000 the event costs.
Would you just cover all the 50 quids of your “mates” who didn’t turn up for your “birthday party”?

To use your analogy, would (in the above scenario) you issue an invoice (via your mates’, child’s schoolbag, obvs) to the mate that didn’t show up, threatening to take them to court if they didn’t pay? Or would you take them to one side, explain that you were out of pocket, and ask for the money? One of these approaches would identify you as a muppet, and worthy of national derision…. and one would just be normal, adult behavior.

Am I a Man or a Muppet?
Luckily my manly response would be

take them to one side, explain that you were out of pocket, and ask for the money?

😀

“The no show kid’s family said he would attend and agreed to cover the cost. “
Matt24k I read all of the links with all of the attention they deserved and never noticed any mention of the guests agreeing to pay in advance where did you get that fact from ?

what crankboy said – I haven’t seen anything about parents agreeing to pay for their own kids to attend?

From the Facebook exchange:

…I did not realise that you had to pay for each child, as you never mentioned anything about money when we spoke…

…Like I said before, no money was mentioned when we spoke, and I feel it would be inappropriate to pay you the money, when I don’t know what it’s actually paying for…

Doesn’t sound to me like they agreed to cover the cost at all.

wwaswas – Member
USA TODAY Network reached out to the Plymouth Ski Slope and Snowboard Centre for comment.

and they told us: “eff off, we don’t speak to anyone who ‘reaches out to’ us!”

thats funny 🙂

“The no show kid’s family said he would attend and agreed to cover the cost. “
Matt24k I read all of the links with all of the attention they deserved and never noticed any mention of the guests agreeing to pay in advance where did you get that fact from ?

Busted!
It would appear that I am a Muppet.

Doesn’t sound to me like they agreed to cover the cost at all.

Maybe they were happy to cover the cost for kids that turned up but not for those that couldn’t be arsed to phone/text to say they weren’t coming 😉

BTW is it normal to send your kids to a party where you don’t know who the other kids parents are? Given the mother of the invoiced kid says she had no idea what the name of the mother of the other kid was, I am a bit surprised, surely you’d want to meet them first or am I putting common sense into a situation and group of people where clearly none exists.

BTW is it normal to send your kids to a party where you don’t know who the other kids parents are?

It is at that age, yeah (IME). You might not have met all the parents at the school gate but if little Hermione invites the whole class to her birthday party then it’s a bit rough to tell your sprog they can’t go because you don’t know Hermione’s parents.

Bear in mind that at that age you generally go along too, it’s not like you are just handing your kids over to a perfect stranger.

Grahams latest entry for Middle class parent of the year 😉

Shouldn’t this whole thing should just be listed under ‘stuff that occasionally happens when you’re life is so cushy, yet also boring, that you have genuinely nothing of any proper importance left to worry about’?

BTW is it normal to send your kids to a party where you don’t know who the other kids parents are?

yup, Havent a clue what most of MiniFla’s friends parents are called, I talk to them at school but as to names, nope virtually none

I’m just wondering why the party bag wasn’t included with the invoice. That’s worthy of a counter-suit on its own.

yup, Havent a clue what most of MiniFla’s friends parents are called, I talk to them at school but as to names, nope virtually none

I’d be more concerned as the parent hosting a group of kids going to a ski slope. Chances of a mishap are reasonable – not having the contact details of the parents whilst waiting in A&E with a bunch of kids there with you (as you couldn’t call them to pick them up early) could be pretty stressful. The hassle involved in taking school groups to events like this is a significant pita but by christ you are grateful you have gone through it and have all the relevant info when the shit hits the fan.