At my daughter’s school, there are two classes in her grade. She used to be one class for the past three years. This year however, my daughter was assigned to another class. It was the principal’s kind offer from some reasons.
Thus, all the classmates in the current class are new to my daughter.
Today my daughter brought back a birthday party invitation from her classmate. This is the fifth one in this school year.
I was a little surprised from these reasons. It has been only 2.5 months passed in this new school year. Also, five birthday invitations out of the total number of 24 classmates is at the high rate.
The weird thing for me is these five classmates are not my daughter’s close friends.
According to some of my American acquaintances, it is common for parents to invite all the classmates for their child’s birthday party. Also it is common to spread the invitation to 30 children and only 5 or 6 children will show up to the party.
This is a new custom from what I have experienced. In my younger days, some of my classmates had a birthday party and invited only a small number of close friends. Once I was invited, I was supposed to attend the party. It was very hard for me to decline the invitation unless I had a reasonable reason.
Both customs have merits and demerits.
Here, it is easy for us to decline the invitation. In most cases the child cannot walk to the party and they need to ask a ride from their parents. That can be a reasonable reason for them to turn down the invitation.
In Japan, they can celebrate their real friends’ birthday party with only a small number of friends, and that will strengthen their friendship.
♬ Any feedback? (^^♪
three wisdom 