Stick 'em Up: Pay for Party

 My daughter is embarking on the challenges of adulthood and all the tacky and greedy people out there.  There is one rule of entertaining that must NEVER be broken:  Never charge your invited guests to attend your party.  

Here's the background.  My daughter's friend, let's refer to her as B, is moving from California to Florida.  B's mother, let's refer to her as K, invited my daughter to attend a going away party for B at a not-so-cheap rooftop restaurant.  Mind you, we already had a little private party here at the house for B to say our good-byes about a week ago.  This was an additional party that K coordinated. 

I know K well enough that she's the type of person who shirks all personal responsibility, including motherhood, to anybody within radius she can con and scam.  I was immediately suspect of K's intentions as I warned my daughter that K would try to stick everybody with the bill for the party she coordinated.  I encouraged my daughter to eat before the party and to bring her own water bottle. 

Lo and behold, when my daughter returned from the party she told me she was instructed by K to contribute $25 for the bill although she did not eat nor drink anything.  

I was livid.  There's a reason K and I are not "friends."  If you can't afford to throw a party at the not-so-cheap rooftop restaurant, don't have a party there.  At the very minimum, the invited guests should have been informed in advance that the bill was going to be divvied up whether or not you consumed anything.  That would leave opportunity for those who don't have $25 to gracefully decline the event.  To pull a tactic of inviting people and then surprising them by sticking them with the bill is a move of the lowest class of people.  

Bottom Line:  Never surprise your invited guests by presenting a bill at the conclusion of the event.  Never charge "admission" for your party.  You're better off selling tickets to the thinly disguised charity event that it really is.  Always entertain in a fashion that you can afford.  Having a picnic party at the local park eating on a blanket on the ground is classier than inviting people to an expensive restaurant where you have to pick-pocket your guests to cover the expense.