Vacate This Vacation

(My wife and I are best friends with another couple whom we went to college with. We live in the same neighborhood and we have sons that are best friends and in the same class at school. As a result, we all spend a lot of time together and even planned a vacation to Florida together for the kids’ February break from school. My son was also born in February, so the vacation will be taking place during his birthday. One evening, my wife answers a call from the mother of one of our son’s classmates.)

Wife: “Hello?”

Mother Of Classmate: “Hi, [Wife], this is [Mother of Classmate]. I’m calling to let you know that there seems to be an issue about your son’s birthday plans.”

Wife: “I’m sorry, can you please clarify?”

Mother Of Classmate: “It appears that [Son and Best Friends’ Son] were discussing with the other kids in the class about how they were going to Florida next month to celebrate your son’s birthday. As you may know, the school has a policy on how a parent is obligated to invite all the children in the class to their child’s birthday if one child from the class is invited. My child is very upset that he wasn’t invited to this party.”

Me: “Okay, well, the trip isn’t actually for my son’s birthday; it’s just a trip with our two families when we could all go. His birthday taking place during the time is coincidental.”

Mother Of Classmate: “Yes, but will you be celebrating his birthday during it?”

Wife: “Yes, we will be celebrating his birthday, not that it’s any of your business.”

Mother Of Classmate: “So it is a birthday party, so my child and the other kids in the class should be invited.”

Wife: “Look, I understand that the rule is in place to keep kids from feeling excluded, but this is a vacation, not a birthday party. You cannot expect us to bring along 20 other kids and pay for flights, hotel, tickets, and meals.”

Mother Of Classmate: “Well, would you expect to pay for your kid to attend someone else’s birthday?”

Wife: “Again, it’s not a birthday party; it’s a vacation. We will not be inviting any other classmates.”

Mother Of Classmate: “But it’s the school’s rule! Fine, if you are going to be so difficult, I will schedule a trip there at the same as your family so my son can attend your son’s birthday. Can you send over your vacation itinerary so we can try to get on the same flights and stay at the same hotel?”

Wife: “No; that is completely out of the question. I will not give you any of of the information for our trip.”

Mother Of Classmate: “Fine. I’ll still go, though. What’s to stop me from finding all of you?”

Wife: “Good luck finding us. Do you know how big Florida is? Now I have had enough of this conversation, which I am honestly finding too foolish to even be having! Have a good evening!”

(My wife hung up after that and relayed what the mother was saying. We later received texts from some other parents of kids in our son’s class, saying how the mother was calling everyone and to say we were not following the rule, and that they were pretty confused. After we said it was a vacation, the parents agreed with us and said she was being crazy. She also called our son’s teacher to make a complaint and we had to clear that up, too. We also had to have our son and our friend’s son not talk about the vacation anymore at school, in case this woman was actually serious about trying to crash our vacation.)