Biting Myself in the Butt

Wouldn't it be great if I could just call a jackass a jackass?

Sometimes I get soooo tired of being polite. And politically correct. And conscious of others. Sometimes, I wish I could just say what I think, and (1) not worry about offending someone, and (2) have comfort in knowing that the other person is such a strong, confident individual that they'd never be offended by my little comments. They'd just embrace my quirks as part of the complete Denese package & be totally cool with that.

What's prompting this post is (yet another) birthday invitation one of my son's received from a classmate. Here's the thing...the kid isn't even technically a class-mate. He's a grade-mate, if there is such a term. They're both in Kindergarten...and that's the ONLY thing these two kids have in common. Well, that, and the fact they both pee standing up. So why...WHY...did this kid feel compelled to invite my son to his birthday party? Or, more appropriately, why...WHY...did his MOTHER feel compelled to drag me into the wake of her son's birthday celebration?

Being the polite, politically correct gal that I am, I email RSVP'd* her back and said something about other obligations we had that day** and that we really appreciated the invitation but we were going to have to decline and have a great time and blah blah blah.

The next day, the mother sent an email to all the invitees saying how silly she had been to try and schedule her son's birthday party on a Saturday, a day when so many kids had other committments for things like sports, etc. She's going to be sending out another REVISED invitation this week with the newly rescheduled date and time of the party for her son. Frack.

So...here I am, biting myself in the butt. Why can't my RSVP*** just say "I'm sorry, but I don't know who the hell your son is, so why should I spend my husband's hard-earned money on a gift for a kid that my own son has never even mentioned before?" I just wish I could say what I'm thinking, and not worry about the message it conveys.

I wonder what the kid wants for his freakin' birthday...

* Thank GOD she provided an email option for me to opt-out in a quiet, non-verbal, non-committal kinda way.

** To be honest, we did have soccer games to attend. To be only partially-honest, the games were not even close to the same time as the birthday party...but still a somewhat valid "out" for us.

*** Or, better yet...not even RSVP! How about just deleting the whole event from my memory and having that be "okay" with everyone involved??