To Lizzy,
My fourth-grader son received an invitation to a birthday celebration recently. The issue was that this invitation was sent out a week prior to the party, which was held in an arcade approximately 45 minutes away from our home on a school night at 6 p.m. I believe that the majority of those invited lived this far away because he attends a local school.
Even if he hadn’t had taekwondo after school, attending this party would have been a complete nightmare. Thus, we said no.
The mother of the birthday child posted a lengthy message on the community Facebook page two days later, describing how she had spent a lot of money on the celebration and invited the entire class, but only two children came up.
Many others, who weren’t class parents, offered to send her son gift cards and lamented that people no longer cared about the neighborhood, claiming that parents were bullying her child and setting a poor example.
In the meantime, I’m furious over here. What a ridiculous birthday celebration! The reason we didn’t turn up was entirely due to her clumsy and strange planning, not her child! Do I need to leave a remark on her post? Do you want to email her? Simply explain the truth to individuals face-to-face.
Assist!
I swear, good dad.
Greetings, Good Dad
Hold on! Put your phone down! (This is coming from someone whose job it is to post stuff to the internet every day, so trust me when I say that you should never post anything online).
If you are irritated by this woman’s poor planning and her account of what transpired, replying to her Facebook post won’t fix the issue. Furthermore, it won’t foster greater camaraderie among your child’s peers or the school community.
As with all Facebook posts, it’s best to let this one slip into obscurity.
It appears that you are not friends with this mother, which is okay. There are many individuals in the world, but the majority won’t become your pals. However, you may still be kind to them while keeping your child and yourself safe.
Personally, I would advise being careful and nice but not becoming involved with someone who uses social media to complain about wrongdoing committed against them by their neighbors.
Additionally, if a trusted and friendly parent inquires about this mother or this situation, be truthful without being petty. You are free to present your version of events without demeaning her or making them seem worse than they actually are.
Perhaps this mother truly has no idea. She made a mistake, whatever it was.
It didn’t make much sense for families because she arranged the birthday celebration too late, leaving the only time and/or reasonably priced location. She invited people far too late. Additionally, rather than accepting responsibility for the reality that her actions caused her child to feel abandoned and shunned, she placed the blame on others who were under no obligation to attend and failed to do so.
Don’t penalize her child for her manipulation of the truth; he is the true victim here and is likely confused and depressed. You can still get him a birthday gift if you’d like. Additionally, make sure he’s invited if you’re inviting the entire class or just the lads. Do not hesitate to invite your son over if he is buddies with him.
But be cautious around the mother. You are now aware of her lack of honesty, which is a serious red flag in my view.
I wish you luck!
Lizzy
Do you have a pressing question? My email address is [email protected], you may use this Google form to ask me a question in complete anonymity.
See Why Tho? for additional information.
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