Why is my son rarely/never invited to birthday parties

TL:DR what are we doing wrong? So, awkward thing to post about but we have been at the same nursery 18months now and my son has only been invited to 1 birthday party (where mum invited the whole class). I often see invites going out but my son never gets one (assume there are more via what’s app only too). In the toddler room I assumed this was because I didn’t know many parents but at pre school is this still the case? Or would there likely be some issues with his social skills? Teachers never raised any concerns, he is often super sociable and outgoing in the classes I take him to. Other kids seems to know him well and he is often playing with them when I collect him. I do drop him off and pick him up it’s what I guess are slightly less usual times (10am/5pm at a private nursery that does 8-6) so I almost never see other parents to mingle with or arrange play dates with, so could be that? He regularly mentions other boys in his class so I know he does play with them but not one in particular - I do have a small group of other mums outside of nursery whose children he often plays with and sometimes do play dates. But they also have summer birthdays and have not yet held a proper party for their own children. (Everyone is away on holidays in July!) For full disclosure I am a ND Mum so the whole social aspect of school was a PITA for me as a child so maybe I’m just internalising this a bit too much 😂 He is desperate to have a big party this year and I don’t even know how to navigate this issue the other way around! Thanks for reading 🙏 any tips advice comments appreciated

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I do picnics for my girl, she’s end of July so the weather tends to be nicer but I’ve done 2 picnics for her now, and so it’s less pressure. Might be an idea to invite them on his birthday weekend and extend the olive branch? Might give them the incentive to do the same, especially if he’s going to be going to school with some of these children. Don’t panic too much, they don’t tend to notice until later on anyway, it’s us mums! Xx

I’d say it’s nothing to do with your child! I’d say that cos you do pick up/drop of at different times the other mums have become super cliquey and they aren’t thinking about who there child wants there they are thinking about the parents they are friends with! Maxi hasn’t been invited to any parties and I work at the preschool and know all the parents really well but they are all very up themselves and think the sun shines out their kids whereas maxi is autistic and his behaviour is really challenging sometimes and they’ve witnessed that or there child has said maxi did this/that- one child even said my mummy will be cross if I play with maxi and so will your mummy’s! It really hurt to start with I see all the pictures etc but now I think thank god I didn’t have to make small talk with that parent 😂

My friend circle with other small kids is outside of nursery so we go to those kids’ bd parties. I received one invitation this year at pre-school which was sent to all group through nursery app but we couldn’t go so I didn’t get a chance to meet parents. One day your son will chicles his own friends to invite so it doesn’t matter. They also play enough with each other in school

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