Another mom invited herself to my kid’s birthday party

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2nd grade is old enough for a drop-off party.
Nobody in either of my children's 2nd grade classes hung around any birthday parties - except for that one parent who brought along her other 2 children.

Maybe you are why. Everyone stayed except maybe a few parents at our parties through 4th grade and we had huge, invite everyone parties.

[Anonymous]

Man some of you all won’t open your front doors but will drop your little kids anywhere and with anyone. It’s crazy.

[Anonymous]

What a distasteful post, op. You'll be there with several dozen kids. Have you thought that their safety would be your responsibility? How can you expect to catch up with anyone when you'll need to host? Better not to host anything with such an attitude.

Here, an advice: when your kid gets invited to another classmate's party, use it as an opportunity to catch up with your clique friends, either while staying at the party or after dropping your kids off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

asking

You answer. She asked, you answer.
Be a grown up and use your words
whatever those are

Regardless of her words, OP doesn’t get to decide who stays at a public venue, unless she owns it.

The public venue is kind of immaterial IMO. If the party were at OP's home, I would still have wanted to stay with my DS when he was in 2nd grade, he could be a real handful at that age.

If your child cannot behave in a public place or at someone else's house then you should not accept an invitation. A screaming, tantruming child ruins a party and far too many parents just smile and say, "I don't know what's gotten into him/her because most of the time they are little angels!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes tell her you can’t accommodate her as the venue has a strict count. She can choose to drop off her child or not bro if him at all. I would be miffed too. Does she stay at school with him too? Ridiculous

Wow. Now I know where the mean kids get it from. Is having to talk to someone other than your bestie so awful that a child should be excluded from the party?

Maybe it’s too early for them to be at a drop off party and that’s ok

You can't have an exclusively "drop-off party" at public venue. You have your party and people do what they please with their free time.

Amen. OP sounds like an absolute nightmare of a control-freak clique queen. I'm so glad I haven't yet met another school parent who was this overbearing.

[Anonymous]

Why would you even invite the whole class if you want a small-party experience?

[Anonymous]

1. She didn’t invite herself to the party. Staying to be available to support your child is different than being a guest at the party. I’m pretty sure she’s not asking you to provide her with a goody bag and the chance to bounce, bowl, shoot lasers, play arcade games, etc.

2. As a parent, you should understand that a child’s well-being and safety is their parent’s top priority and should expect to accommodate that. Even if I was planning to drop off, if I bought my child to a party and found the hosting parent was more focused on their personal socializing than supervising, I would begrudgingly feel obligated to stay and provide some supervision.

3. If personal socializing is your priority, you should be grateful to parents who are willing to supervise, because kids at a birthday party are going to be much more disruptive to your chitchat than another parent.

[Anonymous]

Just an FYI for everyone saying the OP wove busy supervising the whole class. I used to work at a place that did weekend parties. There were hired people who ran the parties. We didn’t need the parents to do anything other than show up with food, pay and tip, and take the garbage bags full of gifts out to the car.

[Anonymous]

If she shows up just ignore her and talk to your friends! Have fun OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she shows up just ignore her and talk to your friends! Have fun OP

This is OP. This is basically what I'm planning to do. I may just "forget" to respond to her text. If she shows up and stays, fine, but I'm not there to entertain her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she shows up just ignore her and talk to your friends! Have fun OP

This is OP. This is basically what I'm planning to do. I may just "forget" to respond to her text. If she shows up and stays, fine, but I'm not there to entertain her.

She's there to support her kid and make sure your DD has a good time.

You are a terrible person, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

asking

You answer. She asked, you answer.
Be a grown up and use your words
whatever those are

Regardless of her words, OP doesn’t get to decide who stays at a public venue, unless she owns it.

The public venue is kind of immaterial IMO. If the party were at OP's home, I would still have wanted to stay with my DS when he was in 2nd grade, he could be a real handful at that age.

If your child cannot behave in a public place or at someone else's house then you should not accept an invitation. A screaming, tantruming child ruins a party and far too many parents just smile and say, "I don't know what's gotten into him/her because most of the time they are little angels!"

NP. This person wanted to stay SO THAT her kid would behave. She could stay and remind him of how to behave properly if he got carried away at parties. This is a chance for him to practice those skills and some kids need more support than others. I much prefer this mom coming to keep an eye on her handful kid than a parent dropping off their handful kid and letting someone else deal with the fallout.

My goodness there's some selfish me me me people on this thread (cough, op, cough) and it's this sort of attitude that our kids are observing! Let's model kindness and acceptance so the future generations can be more empathetic.

Signed, a teacher, with two kids who behave well at parties so I don't have a skin in this game, lest you think that's why I'm supporting the pp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she shows up just ignore her and talk to your friends! Have fun OP

This is OP. This is basically what I'm planning to do. I may just "forget" to respond to her text. If she shows up and stays, fine, but I'm not there to entertain her.

Wow, this is your takeaway from the 8 pages of responses? I truly hope you are a troll because otherwise you are a terrible person and shouldn’t be a parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she shows up just ignore her and talk to your friends! Have fun OP

This is OP. This is basically what I'm planning to do. I may just "forget" to respond to her text. If she shows up and stays, fine, but I'm not there to entertain her.

I’m going to choose to believe that this isn’t op and is someone posing to get folks riled up because I really don’t even want to believe that any mom could read this thread and then say something so cruel.

If it is op, she doesn’t want your entertainment and I think you may have wayyy too high of a view of yourself, she’s not trying to get in with you and your special girlfriends she’s trying to support her kid. If you don’t respond to her text you’re a jerk and as you can tell from this thread one of about 3 out of 99 parents in this area that wouldn’t immediately say yes. If you can’t see that puts you in the wrong with that then the issue is much bigger than this party.

[Anonymous]

You’re sort of a noob to not have anticipated this with an all class party. Sorry.