Kids’ birthday parties are easy to over-think. Of course parents want to do something big to make their kids feel special on their big day — of course they do — but when you’re talking about a 6-year-old, you don’t exactly need to break the bank to do it.
Still, when you see the lengths other parents will go to, you’ll feel some pressure to rise to that level too.
But it’s hard to see how any of that really explains the cruelty on display at one kid’s party.
Build-A-Bear Workshops are where kids get to be their own Santa Claus. Or maybe an elf at least.
So hosting birthday parties there should be an easy way to make a happy memory for all involved, right?
Well, one mom managed to mess it up.
If you want to see how to make a child’s birthday party as awkward and disappointing as possible, even when a place as magical for kids as Build-A-Bear is involved, it’s hard to imagine a better example than the one posted on Reddit .
It’s little wonder that folks are getting heated over this story.
As the poster explained, her daughter’s friend from school was turning six, and her daughter had been invited to the Build-A-Bear party.
“The invitation said each kid (about 8 total) would get to make a Bear, and I just assumed they would get to take them home, since that is what happened at another BAB party I went to,” wrote namenerd77, “Me and my husband even pitched in about 30 dollars as we know these things can get expensive.”
And it all started out well enough, pretty standard kid party stuff, with kids generally being kids, but within reason.
“We get to the store, and the kids go wild getting their animals and accessories. As far as I know the parents didn’t really put a limit, but I made my daughter stick to just a standard dog with a shirt, which about half the parents did as well.”
Sounds like a fun party, right? Even if it’s expensive, each kid goes home with something.
At least, that’s what everyone had assumed.
“All is well, we leave the store, then friends mom announces that the kids need to give all their animals to her daughter. Cue the upset and angry kids.”
Yeah, the birthday girl’s mom wanted all the kids who had just custom-made special stuffed bears to hand them to the birthday girl.
And they did!
“They all disappointingly handed over their animals, and friend wasn’t even being nice about it either,” wrote namenerd77.
Like, how do you even respond in that situation?
“Another little boy didn’t want to,” namenerd77 continued, “and a friend ripped it out of his hands. I probably should have said something, but I didn’t. The other parents seemed pretty baffled too.”
Naturally, that was pretty much the end of the party for a lot of the kids, even though it wasn’t technically over.
“We get back to friends house and our kids are watching as friend plays with all her new animals. I left with my daughter pretty quickly, and once we got back into the car she just started bawling. I felt bad so we went to build a bear and got her a new one.”
Later, namenerd77 met up with the birthday girl’s mom outside the school and another guest’s mom and found that she didn’t even realize there had been an issue.
She and her friend tried to explain to the mom, fake-named Karen in the post, that having to give up the bears was pretty upsetting to their kids.
“Oh yeah, we wanted [our daughter] to have a special animal decorated by each of her friends,” Karen said.
“Oh, okay,” namenerd77 replied. “I was just wondering why the kids didn’t get to keep their bears. I even pitched in a little bit of money, assuming the bears would go to the kids.”
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“Well I didn’t have enough money for each of the guests to make their own, that would get pretty expensive! If you want your money back I’ll see about getting it back to you. I don’t really see the problem though.”
But of course it wasn’t about the money so much.
“Okay, well the kids were forced to give away their new creations, obviously they are going to be upset about it. I also don’t see why your daughter needs all these animals,” namenerd77 tried to explain to Karen. Apparently she just walked away after that, “probably offended.”
Folks on Reddit were understandably angered by namenerd77’s story.
For the most part, folks were just flabbergasted at the lack of tact.
As one person wrote , “I just cannot imagine any parent throwing a party for their kid and being so cruel.”
And many in the thread pointed out that this short-sighted cruelty might have backfired badly on the birthday girl because she might have a big problem getting guests at her parties in the future.
The worst part? Almost all of the guests had brought separate gifts as well!
So the birthday girl got all those specially made bears, some torn right from the hands of the kids who made them and kissed their hearts in the creation ceremony, and an armload of gifts.
Plus, if they wanted a “special animal decorated by each of her friends,” maybe the kids should have known they weren’t decorating it for themselves.
Talk about a serious communication mistake.
Even if the kids had some warning ahead of time that the bears would be going to the birthday girl — which they didn’t — it still would have been a faux pas at best.
