WWYD: Birthday party invite mistake

[elizamom]

I made a huge mistake. Apparently, I wrote the wrong time on one of DS's birthday invites. The family showed up at the venue an hour after the party ended. I feel awful. Any ideas on how to 'right' this 'wrong'?
The only idea I can come up with is to take the child with us to the venue next time we go. However, we don't know the family and I don't know how comfortable they would be with that idea. I know I wouldn't be comfortable handing my 5 year old over to a family I wan't good friends with.

[mom2binsd]

I would call them up, explain the mistake, and offer to have the child over to play (you don't necessarily have to go to the venue again, not sure if it's the kind of place that you can just go with 2 kids?). They might be fine with it (have they been in school together for awhile?). If you have the child over, maybe do something extra fun, like take them out to Dairy Queen too?

[elbenn]

I like the idea of having the child over and doing something special (even if it's just making ice cream sundaes and doing a craft). Another idea is to give them a gift card to the venue for them to enjoy when they wanted, and maybe ask them to let you know when they are going so you could possibly meet them there for your kids to play together. I think the offer of a play date is sufficient, but the gift card would be a nice gesture if you wanted to do that.

[JustMe]

I agree with the above 2 pps and think any of these are nice ideas. I would lean towards stopping at offering to do a fun thing witht he child (and family if they want to accompany), and probably not feel a gift card offer is necessary, but whichever makes you feel better.

I will say that this happened recently to one of ds' friend's mom. She told some of us the wrong day (said it was Sunday instead of Saturday). She actually figured out her error when my ds did not show up as she knows I am not the type to RSVP and no show--so she called us and we were able to hustle over and make it...a few kids were not notified until the party was over. This mom was only momentarily upset and didn't really do anything. I do think the idea of doing something special is nice and makes sense, but don't beat yourself up too much...it happens and helping kids learn this and deal with disappointment is the kids' parents' responsibilty.

[Chitowngirl]

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[elizamom]

Thanks so much ladies. I went with the gift card approach. I had two free passes on hand so I gave them those. In hindsight that was a no-brainer, but for whatever reason that idea did not come to mind. So thank you!