"Cate" wrote in message
...
snip
Am I out of line for thinking that if you host your own birthday party,
it's
a little odd to ask for monetary contributions to pay if you want to eat?

Cate



Personally, I think it's extremely rude. It reminds me of my parents'
friends, who would invite people to their birthday parties and have the
"entrance fee" (my words, not theirs) listed on the invitation. Sometimes
they wouldn't even do that, but tell how much was owed when people arrived
or before they left ("Oh, by the way, it's $10 each for the food and gift).
Once, one of them brought a cake for the other (a small cake--maybe 6"
round) to a public gathering (they were all members of an Argentine tango
group) and then asked the others for $1 each--even those who didn't eat any.
Rude, rude, rude. I'd not go or I'd go and bring whatever gift I would have
brought, anyway. Screw what they want.

Lest people think this only applies to older people, at work a couple of
years ago three of us decided to buy a birthday cake for someone. I assumed
we'd be splitting the cost 3 ways, and was fine with it. One of the others,
however, insisted on counting the number of people who had some cake, then
divided the cost by that number, and charged each person accordingly. She
was 21. But that's Winnipeg for you (notorious for its cheapskate-ness)!

rona

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