Noncommittal

You know the type. They have a hard time committing to an invitation and typically wait until last minute to tell you yes or no. We all know people like this. I have known several in my life and honestly I have probably been noncommittal in my life at times. Can I just say it drives me crazy?

I had a friend a while ago who had a hard time committing. She would talk about getting the kids together to play and then we would not hear from her until the next day. There was always an excuse as to why she didn't call ie. something better came up. I liked her a lot (the kids were a different story) so we remained flexible and got together when it worked out.

I currently have a friend who has a hard time committing to invitations. I can't describe how crazy it makes me. In October, we had a cookout. She was unable to make it but last minute she told me she would send her husband and kids up. She kindly asked what she could send with him and we agreed on juice boxes. I ended up not buying more juice boxes because he was bringing some. He ended up taking the kids somewhere and sent the message through my neighbor that they would not be attending. Hey dude....I bought extra food for you. I let this go, can you tell?

The next invite was to our New Years Eve/birthday party for my husband. Again she had to work until 7pm but she would send the husband and kids up. I stated my plan firmly about when the kids and the adults would eat. Her husband shows up about 1 1/2 hours late. She showed up about 1/2 hour after he did. When she arrived I told her that they had just gotten there, I had been getting the baby ready for bed and did not know if their kids had eaten. Just as we sit down to eat one of her kids comes up looking for dinner. I had no kids' dinner left but told her she could give her a piece of lasagna. I won't even get started on how this stirred the other kids up. I find out at the end of the meal that the husband had gone to subway prior to arriving at our house which is why he did not eat the lasagna. Are you kidding me?

So now I am having a dinner party on Saturday. And you guessed it once again she is working but will check with her husband to see if he would like to bring the girls up. Really now...that has worked so well in the past. I debated before I did the invite as to whether I should invite them or not. My husband thought I should. I am not the only one she does this to. She does it to my neighbor as well. My neighbor has in a round about way told her that she needs to give an answer one way or the other. She does not entertain much so I don't think she understands the planning involved for the events.

I have made it a priority to kindly respond to all invitation I receive in a timely manner. I (we) can't always make it to everything but make our intentions known. Yes, sometimes I have had to cancel last minute for one reason or another and I do feel terrible. And I make a sincere apology to the host. How to get this across to her.......