My mother and stepfather babysit for my 3 year old daughter several days a week. My mom is retired and my stepfather still works. Their neighbors are a couple in their 40’s who have a son who is turning 4. The father used to bring the son over to play with my daughter when she was there. Several times per week, when my daughter was there, the father would knock on my mom’s door and say his son was asking for her, and they would play. He said once that his son knew my car, and he got excited when he saw it because knew that when he saw my car it meant my daughter was going to be there.

My daughter’s birthday was in early June, which is now over 2 months ago. My mom had a small party in her backyard, just our family went. My mom invited the neighbors and their son. They came, it was fine, it seemed a good time was had by all. Our family and the neighbors are all middle class or upper middle class professionals, so that is one similarity. Nothing negative happened at the party, that i know of. They brought a birthday gift for my daughter, i sent a thank you card a few days later.

However, since around the time of the party, the father has not brought the son to call for my daughter at all. My daughter is invited to the son’s birthday party, which is this weekend. I just think it strange that they went from playing a few days a week (whenever my daughter was at my mom’s) to not once in over two months. My mom went there once with my daughter to call on the son but they were not home.

Should i ask the father, not at the son’s birthday party of course, but in the future, should i ask if there’s a reason why they don’t come to play any more? or should i just let it go and chalk it up to “it’s just one of those things?”