What Would Miss Manners Do?

Recently, Andy was invited to a birthday party for a friend of his who will be turning three next month. Shortly thereafter, I got an e-mail from the hostess to the guest list telling us that the party location is relatively small and therefore other siblings (mostly youngest) are not invited. She copied all of us so that we would know who else was invited to make babysitting arrangements.

Having only one kid, it didn't really occur to me about not inviting the other siblings, but upon thinking about it, I did recall a friend complaining that her four-year-old daughter's party at the Little Gym ended up costing $200 extra because parents brought other siblings and they went over their allotment of kids at the group rate.

The whole thing was interesting and made me wonder what Miss Manners would do. I know for adults, the deal is you put on the invitation the names of who you want to invite. So if Bjorn and I are invited to a party and Andy is not, the envelope would be addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Awesome, not Mr. and Mrs. Awesome, Mr. Andy Awesome.

But for kids this age, obviously the parents have to be invited, too. Do you get that specific on the envelope? And what if you know the kid, but not the parents? I'm glad this isn't a problem we've run into, but it made me think. You're thoughts?