> Now my kids are older and it seems that only they get to party. I try my best, invited some people for parties, but we never seem to get invites in return. W

> Now my kids are older and it seems that only they get to party. I try my best, invited some people for parties, but we never seem to get invites in return. Wanted to address this first as I feel like there are big cultural differences (even in the United States) on reciprocity for invites. I was raised by an Italian born mother and a US born (German/Scottish Pennsylvania) father. In our family, if someone invited you to a party or event then the thought was that you should invite them to something in return. It didn't have to be exactly 1 for 1 but if it became too lopsided, some kind of action would be taken e.g. just invite over for coffee etc. Once I moved to New York City, I tried to carry forward this trend and also ended up in situations where I would invite certain people multiple times and not get any invites in return. You can make a whole "the universe only rewards no expectations" etc kind of point but I was curious as to what was going on. I asked one of the individuals what the reason was for not invites and he said: "If you are inviting me to your event, it's because you think I'm cool and fun to hang out with and want me there. Given that, I don't feel an obligation to invite you in return." This feels like one of those life situations where there isn't a right and wrong answer here but if two people are coming at it from different places, it can lead to hurt feelings.