Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Wednesday's dilemma

D has been invited to a classmates 7th birthday party. They are friends, but not super close. However, with only 12 girls in her class, everyone is usually at every event.

The twist is it's a Roller Skating party. D cannot roller skate. I doubt she's ever heard of roller skating. And she is NOT one to dive boldly into physically challenging sports. And she is also not big on doing things that everyone else would think is funny (i.e., learning to skate) in front of a crowd.

If I tell her about the invite -- which I suppose I'll have to -- I'm sure she'll want to go, even though she won't have a concept of what roller skating is all about (and how hard that rink can be!!)

Do I let her go and just try?
Do I let her go although I know she'll end up clinging to a wall, probably crying with frustration?
Do I let her go and stay with her and try to help her? (Do I remember how to skate? Do I even want to try less than a month before our ski trip?!)
Do I massively underestimate her ability to deal with challenging situations?
Do I try to talk her out of it and, if I succeed, am I being overprotective?
Do I send her with M, who is much more patient than I?
Do kids really need to go to every birthday party they're invited to?

So, PLEASE, anyone with older kids who has been in a similar situation: Chime In!!


**It's NaBloPoMo Day 5! Hurrah!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you would not have any qualms about letting her go if it was any other kind of party, then I'd say let her decide. If, however, you're more of a mind to protest against mindless party invitations, then don't. Yeah, I know, people don't want anyone to feel left out...but I would get tired of trying to buy junk [and I do mean junk] for a kid who 1) my children and I hardly know and 2) certainly doesn't need it. OTOH, if, in the past, you've invited all the kids to a party for D, then you're stuck.

Stacey