I am FRUSTRATED!!!!.......

[Marilyn]

You are not being selfish. I'd find a way to make it work. We had a similiar problem when our girls were small. We had babysat for my husbands brother and his wife for years and thought when we had children, they would be there to reciprocate. Not...They moved 2 hours away while I was pregnant with our first. My sister kept our first baby for a few hours while we had a party, but brought her home before the party was over, so we never tried that again. My parents lived 20 minutes out of town, but were getting too old and we did not want the girls in the car with their grandfather driving, so we were stuck. No family to help out. We did find a reliable paid babysitter, finally, but we did only have two, so it was I'm sure much easier.

You need a break to be a couple every now and then to keep your relationship going without the kids. You may have to split them up for the weekend, but I'd definitely find a way to work this out and go to that party.

Wishing you the very best!!