Women's Interests

The brunch party is to the social life what fine wine is to a good meal. For women, particularly busy women, it’s a very good quality of life event. Brunch is situated at a civilized time of day, when husbands, colleagues and kids are all endearingly distant, and out of the way. Everything about the brunch party, from a good teapot to a beautiful dinner service that really needs to impress someone other than the dog, is fun.

Photo: Shandi-lee

Brunch party basics

The best reason to have a brunch party is specifically because it’s a brunch party. They provide a lot of good opportunities for shameless manipulation of the domestic environment, too.

There are a few fundamental issues:

• Invite only people who get on together very well. Good company is the essence of the brunch party. The warring factions can be kept apart until an office function or some other occasion when entertainment is desperately needed.
• The food should be something special. A whole morning’s worth of good food will make you feel about 30 years younger. It’s also a great way of finding reasons to stock up on all your favorite foods.
• The environment should be beautiful. That basically means remove evidence of domestic habitation, put on your best Home Beautiful show, and make the family feel guilty for wanting to know where their video games went.
• The brunch party provides leverage. “Oh I so rarely get to see….”. will silence the male element, particularly the home office worker who will see the writing on the wall as well as the RSVPs and won’t argue.
• Clothes are part of brunch parties. The brunch coat was a lifestyle breakthrough for women. It was a social statement: “To hell with you, we want our brunches.” The brunch coat comes and goes in and out of fashion, but its heritage lives on in a range of very wearable, elegant and above all likeable  clothes.

The reasons women love brunch parties

The reasons are unassailable:

1. The world can go play in the traffic for a while. One of the most important reasons of all, the brunch is like a circuit breaker. The brunch party is its own world, and everything else can be authoritatively ignored.
2. The brunch party is like a holiday. You really don’t have to dwell on the irritating things in life. Big talk or small talk, it’s never boring talk.
3. It’s a great way of catching up. You and your probably equally besieged friends need to create space to mix. Brunch parties can create a social life where you wouldn’t otherwise even have had a chance to think about it.
4. The brunch party environment is something special. It’s quieter than a restaurant, serves everyone’s favorite food, and is an actual party, not a sort of production line social event.
5. Brunch parties breed brunch parties. The natural tendency to do a range of return invitations is good economics for everyone. (Don’t hold it against any people who aren’t comfortable with inviting people over. They have their reasons, and it’s not because they’re cheap.)

Dig out your best tea pots, stare the family in the eye, and say “I’m having a brunch party”. There won’t be any objections.