Pick me! Pick me!

Do you ever feel left out? Do you remember how it felt when you were a kid? I can hear the hearts breaking everywhere. Over the past few weeks, I have been a few places with my youngest where they were doing audience participation things. She would raise her hand but didn't get picked. The look of disappointment on her face - oh, man, just thinking about it now makes me tear up. That poor little girl. Sure, she is going to learn in life that you can't always be chosen for everything. She'll even learn that there will be plenty of times when she would rather not be chosen for anything! But, I don't want her spirits to be deflated. So what do you do when the mom of the boy your child adores doesn't include your kids at the birthday party? How do you explain it to your kid? Do you just ignore it and avoid it and pretend it never happened? Do you say "Billy's mom didn't invite you to his party. I'm sorry. I don't know why." I think that's a bad idea, but I'm sure there are parents who do that sort of thing. Everyone wants their child to get chosen for things - we want them to be liked and admired and included on everyone's list of favorite people. But that can't always happen. So, I guess we just have to like them and admire them even more to make up the difference!