Emily Duprie
As a parent of a small child, it’s your duty in life to ensure they have the funnest, most extravagant birthday parties that Party City can provide. Kids love inviting their peers from school, whether they are best friends or not. When you’re in 2nd grade, it’s obviously all about status. However, 2nd graders are typically old enough to decide who they don’t like, and conscious bullying usually begins to take place around this age group.
One upset mother recently came to the “Am I The A-hole?” subreddit for opinions after she invited everyone in her daughters class, except for her bully, to her 7 year-old’s birthday party. Since OP’s parties are notoriously fun, the student who was left out quickly realized she was the only one excluded and low and behold, went crying to mommy.
It makes perfect sense that a rotten little bully shouldn’t get a red-carpet welcome to their preys special day, but the mother of the banished was not happy about the decision. Read the story below and let us know what you would have done!
“We invited the whole class except one student.”
OP asked: “AITA for not inviting one child from my daughters class to a party?”
My (28 female) and husband (29 male) have a daughter Payton (7 female).
Payton goes to a small school with 20 kids in her grade. Her birthday party is next month and we sent out invitations to her friends at school. We invited the whole class except one student.
The student we did not invite has bullied Payton several times (we’ve had meetings with the school and parents). Obviously Payton doesn’t want this kid at her party.
Fair enough point. OP continued by explaining how the bullies parents reacted to her exclusion…
The other girls mother called me to talk about it saying how now her daughter is crying she was the only kid not invited and everyone at school is talking about the party. (Payton’s parties are known by her classmates to be very over the top). I explained her daughter isn’t nice to my daughter and that’s the reason she wasn’t invited (the mother knows this). The mother said I’m teaching my child to be a “bully” and use her wealth to make friends. I disagreed.
Desperate for an invite, the other mother presented a “solution.”
The mother then asked if she had her daughter apology and write Payton a letter we could reconsider. I told her we would not and it has become a big deal every time I see the mom. AITA?
Edit for questions:
Invitations were not handed out in the classroom. I handed them to parents directly.
I’ve seen a few people ask exactly what kind of bullying has occurred. So I’ll give a couple examples from last year and this year.
One time Payton came home crying because the little girl was so mean to her. Telling her she wasn’t pretty, too chubby, etc.
Payton has come home crying several times because the girl has told her there’s no way she’s a cheerleader (Payton does cheering on weekends) because she wasn’t “pretty”.
She has told Payton she couldn’t play with the rest of the girls in the class when they were all playing jump rope at recess. The other girls told her to let Payton play so when it was Payton’s turn the girl purposely got her “out” by not swinging the rope nicely. The teacher saw that happen.
She’s called Payton a cry baby.
And this is only a couple of the incidents that happened.
Redditors agreed that this upset mom was completely valid for not inviting Payton’s bully to her party, despite her parents last minute, half-assed apology
