IT was one of those funny coincidences that children’s birthday parties hit the headlines recently, just as we were organising our own daughter’s shindig.

One set of parents sent another an invoice via a schoolbag (and then threatened to take them to the small claims court) because the latter hadn’t bothered to inform the former that their son would not be attending a planned dry ski slope party.

They had previously confirmed their attendance but didn’t show up on the day, thus ensuring that the hosts lost out on the money they’d paid out on their guest’s behalf. The issue has attracted such attention online because plenty of people will have had an opinion on the matter, and many of those opinions will have been rather divided.

Some people will have thought that such an approach, and the threat of court, was a gross overreaction to the loss of such an amount of money (£15.95) whilst others will have empathised, possibly having themselves been left out of pocket themselves in a similar fashion.

Is the excuse of a double-booking (apparently the parents remembered that they’d arranged for their son to spend time with his grandparents) inadequate? Why could the ‘guilty’ party not simply have informed the party organiser that they could not make it by text / via Facebook or similar (they had her contact details)?

And, when it all comes down to it, is this an utterly farcical situation to have arisen over a five year-old’s party?

Aside from the elaborate nature of birthday parties these days, things are certainly very different due to the fact that these are litigious (and health and safety obsessed) times.

That carries over to any parents who decide to host a gathering for their offspring to which they invite other people’s children.

All of my birthday parties, right up until I was 11 years old, took the same form. Some of my friends came to my house where we played party games like pass the parcel and ate a party tea of sandwiches and ice cream and jelly.

Past that age, we went to the bowling alley and graduated to burgers and chips for our celebratory feasts.

At least my parents didn’t have to worry about getting sued if someone fell over or hurt themselves on a chair or any of the other crazy scenarios that have seen people end up in court these days.

I fretted a little recently when I was at a party and a five year-old girl asked me to take her to the toilet. She’d been left at the event by her parents, who’d gone off elsewhere.

So, feeling that there was no other option and to prevent any accidents, I left my own daughter unassisted for a while in order to take this little girl to the loo.

But, in doing so, I – a complete stranger to this child - exposed myself to risk had anything happened, or had she claimed any such thing.

Weirder things have definitely happened.