In Poor Taste

Apparently I've been burning bridges. I'm pretty sure there was another Girls Night Out last night, and this time I wasn't invited... most likely it's because I don't like Facebook and games that make people behave badly.

Since I'm already on a roll not making friends around here, I might as well add fuel to the fire. This week I received a very disturbing invitation. I have changed the names to protect the innocent. It reads:

Mary's "American Girl" Movie and Birthday Party

Come celebrate Mary's 7th birthday with us. We want to introduce you to a new favorite thing of hers: Emily Rose @ Home. We provide unique high quality and affordable clothing and furniture for 18-inch soft-body dolls. Our clothes will fit the American Girl Doll, Magic Attic, Our Generation, etc. Bring your daughter and her doll and try it out. Be one of the first to see this new and exciting merchandise! Samples of clothes and furniture will be available to look at, feel and try. Great gifts for granddaughters, too. Remember, Christmas will be here before you know it!

That, of course, is followed by the RSVP number, etc.

Wait just a minute, People!

I'm all for birthday parties. And, I'm all for sales parties. But, I completely object to a sales party that is disguised as a birthday party. Let me give you my thought process as I read this....

My daughter is invited to this party. I don't recognize the name of the girl, and look, she's seven and my daughter is only five, so I'm pretty sure they just went through the entire primary roster and invited every girl. I would be obligated to bring a gift, and on top of that, they want to show my daughter these neat, and most likely expensive doll clothes, then use my own daughter's powers of coercion to force me to buy them, too.

Can I say loud and clear, NO THANK YOU! Then, two days before the party, I received a facebook message reminding me of this party. It took a great deal of self-control on my part just to delete the message and not send back a nasty reply. (But, you know, I thought of Kim's nasty email that was accidentally sent, so I was trying to play nice here.)

Am I wrong to be so upset about this? I cannot help but feel that it is in poor taste. What does that teach little girls about birthdays? It's not enough to have a party and have everyone bring a gift, but they have to buy stuff, too? Plus, I don't even know this little girl, so they'll invite my daughter as long as they think they can drum up business from us, but if it were a regular party, she would have been excluded.

I say, if you want to sell doll clothes, then sell doll clothes. And, if you want to have a birthday party, have a birthday party, but let's not confuse the two.

Feel free to chide me. Like I said, I'm on a roll burning bridges.