Sydney

At the annual McKinley auction, Drew and I successfully bid on some free passes to Flight, bounce house about an hour away. We told Rachel that she could invite three friends, and she chose Sydney, Simone and Kennedy. She said she'd take care of asking all three.

A few nights before the event, we asked Rachel who was coming. She said that Simone had declined because she has a free pass to Flight and could go anytime. That seemed odd to me, especially since I had told Simone's dad, Larry, about the party during the botanic gardens field trip. (Simone has a lot of activities and family things, so it's hard to catch her for a playdate, and I was especially interested in her coming to this one.)

I emailed Larry about Simone's refusal and he said that seemed odd to him, too.

I came to learn that what happened was that Sydney had expressed displeasure about Simone coming, and Simone heard about it and said she didn't care. When Drew and I finally got that out of Rachel, I was absolutely livid. I told Rachel in no uncertain terms that from now on, Mom and Dad would be in charge of invitations. Then I marched into the study, called Larry and just plunged in: I explained the confusion, apologized for it and said we would LOVE to have Simone come. I ended up planning the timing around an event Simone had to go to the day of the party.

Larry mentioned that it was sad that Sydney was being a "mean girl" and trying to get the other kids to bend to her will, and I agreed -- and grimly resolved to myself that I would never let this happen again.