Retirement party invite question

Birdie1483

So I'm co-planning my mom's retirement party and I'm going to start on the invitations tonight. My mom wasn't sure if we should address the invitations to her coworkers' spouses as well. Obviously family friends will have both husband and wife names on them, but we weren't sure of the proper etiquette for coworkers.

Do you think I should include the coworkers' spouses on the invitation, even if my mom has never met them? Most of my aunt's coworkers came alone when she had her party a few years ago. The party is going to be an open-house type of party for a few hours in the afternoon.

Calypso1977

if its during the workday, i dontt hink you have to invite the spouses.
if its an evening or weekend affair, outside of business hours, then spouses shoudl probably be invited although they will probably decline.

Birdie1483

It's on a Saturday afternoon from 2-4

Calypso1977

id probably extend the invite to spouses. 

jessicabessica

I would think that if your mom is close enough to them that they would be invited to an out-of-work/weekend event (although work-related), it would be nice to invite them with their spouses.  They and their spouses might decide that the spouse doesn't want to attend, but I could see them wanting to attend together, particularly because if they are spending the afternoon together, they might stop by while doing other Saturday-afternoon things.  Does that make sense?

Birdie1483

Yep it does. I figured when it doubt, invite them, but my mom didn't think we should. I'm going to anyways. It won't matter budget wise how many we invite.

Birdie1483

Thanks Liv! My mom's a high school teacher, so it sounds like they had similar situations.

tenofcups4me

I honestly think you can go either way on this. I've been invited to work-related functions outside of work that invited spouses and some that didn't. Same for DH and my parents when they were working. I'd go with what you mother thinks is best -- she knows her workplace and co-workers better than we possibly could.

Edit: I just saw the part that your mom's a teacher. My mother was also a teacher. I think most of the retirement parties she attended were just for the people who worked there, not their spouses. I know my dad was just as happy to not attend those things too!

firsttimersluck

extend it to spouses.. if it's a really close group of people the spouses will opt out, if it's not then the people may feel uncomfortable without their spouse there at their side. I take my guy wherever I can bring him