Sounds like the “No Thank You Notes” Club idea that tesseract mentioned might work.
So, in the invitation, does it say “No Gifts”? No gifts - no thank you notes to write… sounds like the problem is solved.
To me - it seems like “obligatory gifting” is way too common - One of my co-workers was stressing this week because her 2 kids (4 & 6) were both invited to birthday parties by kids from school. All the kids in class were invited, I guess (Wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings… :rolleyes: )
She didn’t even KNOW the kids or the parents and had no idea what to get. In that example, I wonder what the point is of having the party at all…
[flippant mode]
Of course you could just become Jehovah’s Witnesses - no birthday celebrations or Christmas to worry about…
[/flippant mode]
end of story.
As for the party issue, consider the time spent writing thank you notes as part of the planning time.
If you can make time to order the cake and buy favors then you make time to write Thank You notes. If you find them to be so bothersome, then don’t have birthday parties.
How much time do you honestly spend on the Dope?
Writing thank you notes takes about as much time as surfing the net or watching TV.
and its just not gifts:
I also think its important to send Thank You’s to people I have interviewed with in the past.