Birthday parties are very important events for young kids. It's a whole day all about them where they get sweets and gifts galore! Not to mention the birthday party itself, a day of hanging out with their friends and celebrating.
Unfortunately, those treasured parties can go very wrong very quickly, like what happened to one young boy.
Though she specifies the bully has been targeting her son for a while, the post was about a specific incident and her reaction to it, asking if she was in the wrong for the decision she ended up making.
Before that, though, let's go over the series of events leading up to said decision.
Her now 8-year-old son, his friend Kyle, and his bully Josh.
Josh has been terrible to her son for some time now, though she is a little sympathetic. She writes, "The poor kid has gone through a lot. His baby sister died, then his dad leaves him and his mom. My son has a baby brother and he has both me and my husband (his dad) still in the one home. So he has become a target for Josh's hurt and anger."
"It started off when they went to virtual learning last September. [...] I spoke to the teacher and she said she was doing everything to correct Josh and protect my son. Then in May their school decided to test out going back [to] in-person learning all day. While there, Josh was nasty to my son. Made the entire month a living hell for my son [...]."
Flash forward to the party. Her son had invited Kyle, who was apparently Josh's cousin. When Kyle's mom came to drop him off, she also had Josh with her.
"She explained he was her nephew, etc, etc, and she was hoping it would help everyone if he was included [because of] everything going on. I said no way. That he was not invited and given the way he treats my son he was not coming in. She argued with me but I stood firm."
She finished off her post like this, "[...] she's saying I was an asshole to a little boy and should have shown kindness and understanding. My son freaked out when he saw Josh at our house and asked if he was staying. He was so relieved he wasn't. [Am I the asshole] here? I feel bad for the kid but feel my only loyalty is to my son."
The most popular reply laid it out perfectly, "For starters, it was very presumptuous of her to show up with a +1 when she was not given a +1.
"She also put you in a position where you needed to choose to turn away a kid who is having a hard time, or force your son to put up with his bully in his own home. Neither choice is going to be the right one and the onus is on her for forcing that on you."
"Your job is to protect your child, not make up for the failings of a bully's family. And a birthday party is not the time and place for a teaching moment," wrote another reply.
With all this assurance, the author of that post can rest easy knowing she did the right thing foer her son and protected him perfectly.
