My 8-year-old DS got left in a movie theatre game room for two hours. I'm allowed to be upset.

[Anonymous]

was he alone or with another friend(s) who also chose to skip the movie?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I would run her name through the MUD! I would tell every parent I could about this lunatic. I guarantee you they will not have to worry about anymore parties. I seriously doubt other parents will allow their kid within 20 feet of these crazy people and probably wont invite her kid to anything either. She will get the point eventually. We had a parent show some questionable parenting at my DD's school and believe me, none of the parents trust this family anymore with their kids.

Agree with this! I would tell everyone. Not safe for them to send their kids to their home or to their parties (never mind the tackiness!).

This.

[Anonymous]

This is nuts. I might even consider telling the teacher or someone at the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow- I cannot imagine. I would be pissed. OP, chalk this up to a bad experience with a horrible parent.

I do not know any parent who would behave this way.

I would never assume this is a troll. Parents do stupid crap like this regularly. I live in an affluent neighborhood in the suburbs but have experienced something like this. Sorry op. I'm going to hijack.

When my kids were early elementary age they were invited to a former preschool chum's birthday party one weekend. The kids were to meet at the bd kid's house and the mom explained that they were going to do two car trips to get all the kids to the facility 15-20 minutes away. They had two cars but were going to only use one car and make multiple trips. I was reluctant to let my kids go. I offered to drive a carload of the kids over myself trying to be helpful but mom declined. Mom called me back and told me they were going to take both cars and could fit all the kids, so no worries, please let your kids come.

Dh and I planned on picking our kids up at the laser tag facility so we headed that way. Our kids called after about 2 hours and told us they'd been left at the house with bd boy's older sister who was 11 or 12. The parents had taken all the other kids over and let them play 2 games of laser tag and then the dad drove back and got our kids and the bd kids sister. We went to the laser tag facility and the mom was horrified to see us and tried to hide from us. She could not explain why our kids were not there. Dad walked in with our kids and bd boy's older sister well over two hours into the birthday party. This mom acted like she was furious that we showed up. I can not fathom why she would do this. We had always gotten along but are at opposite ends of the wealth spectrum. I offered to help her out in several different ways. I really think they wanted to save the price of 2 games for 3 kids. Dh said that he had noticed resentment from them that I ignored ie comments about our house (so big it's useless, your brick front mcmansions all look alike,etc).


I've never spoken to these parents since.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow- I cannot imagine. I would be pissed. OP, chalk this up to a bad experience with a horrible parent.

I do not know any parent who would behave this way.

I would never assume this is a troll. Parents do stupid crap like this regularly. I live in an affluent neighborhood in the suburbs but have experienced something like this. Sorry op. I'm going to hijack.

When my kids were early elementary age they were invited to a former preschool chum's birthday party one weekend. The kids were to meet at the bd kid's house and the mom explained that they were going to do two car trips to get all the kids to the facility 15-20 minutes away. They had two cars but were going to only use one car and make multiple trips. I was reluctant to let my kids go. I offered to drive a carload of the kids over myself trying to be helpful but mom declined. Mom called me back and told me they were going to take both cars and could fit all the kids, so no worries, please let your kids come.

Dh and I planned on picking our kids up at the laser tag facility so we headed that way. Our kids called after about 2 hours and told us they'd been left at the house with bd boy's older sister who was 11 or 12. The parents had taken all the other kids over and let them play 2 games of laser tag and then the dad drove back and got our kids and the bd kids sister. We went to the laser tag facility and the mom was horrified to see us and tried to hide from us. She could not explain why our kids were not there. Dad walked in with our kids and bd boy's older sister well over two hours into the birthday party. This mom acted like she was furious that we showed up. I can not fathom why she would do this. We had always gotten along but are at opposite ends of the wealth spectrum. I offered to help her out in several different ways. I really think they wanted to save the price of 2 games for 3 kids. Dh said that he had noticed resentment from them that I ignored ie comments about our house (so big it's useless, your brick front mcmansions all look alike,etc).


Your kids called you saying they'd been left at the house? Why didn't you drive to the house then and get them, instead of going to laser place? Not following. Terrible store regardless. I would have never spoken to again either.


I've never spoken to these parents since.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just so strange. Did the mom say it was pay your own way when inviting the kids? I cannot imagine.

There were seven boys attending and she did request we send money because of the number of children.

Name the school please. This is not a private school parent, right ?

Did your DS bring a gift ?

Its common knowledge that the party activity is provided free of charge by the host. She is classless, but why did no one have a heads up when she amended the invite asking for each kid to bring money for the movie.

That was your warning ....

[Anonymous]

I hope your son was okay and not too upset.

[Anonymous]

Crazy. Your poor son. The other mom is a nutcase!

[Anonymous]

OP, did you confirm your son's story with a hosting mom? It sounds so weird, that I would verify it just in case. I know you trust your son, but sometimes kids do stupid things. Could it be that he chose to spend money on games instead movie? I just have such a hard time to believe that an adult parent would leave the child along for 2 hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, did you confirm your son's story with a hosting mom? It sounds so weird, that I would verify it just in case. I know you trust your son, but sometimes kids do stupid things. Could it be that he chose to spend money on games instead movie? I just have such a hard time to believe that an adult parent would leave the child along for 2 hours.

OP did confirm the story with the host mom. The host mom said that the son didn't want to watch the movie (v. didn't have the money) and didn't want her to call his mom, but confirmed that he spent two hours by himself (her husband checked on him twice during that time). So it's true--the host parents allowed the kid to spend two hours alone without notifying his parents. Which is insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not a private school parent, right ?

Did your DS bring a gift ?

Both questions are completely irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

That is crazy. Don't rationalize her behavior. Keep your distance from this family. This is not normal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, did you confirm your son's story with a hosting mom? It sounds so weird, that I would verify it just in case. I know you trust your son, but sometimes kids do stupid things. Could it be that he chose to spend money on games instead movie? I just have such a hard time to believe that an adult parent would leave the child along for 2 hours.

OP did confirm the story with the host mom. The host mom said that the son didn't want to watch the movie (v. didn't have the money) and didn't want her to call his mom, but confirmed that he spent two hours by himself (her husband checked on him twice during that time). So it's true--the host parents allowed the kid to spend two hours alone without notifying his parents. Which is insane.

don't think OP confirmed that there wasn't at least another kid with him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:that's ridiculous and tacky as shit. I'm not paying for my 8 yr old to go to another kids bday party. What the hell did the invite say?

+1. I'd have declined the invite on principle alone!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, I suppose telling the parent that you put your son in their care because you assumed he would be appropriately supervised, and being left in an arcade for 2 hours is not "appropriately supervised."

Then call the theater and tell them that they need to beef up their monitoring system, too. Your son was left alone in the arcade for two hours without adult supervision. They should've noticed. No need to press charges or anything, but you know... they are a business. They need to be looking out for stuff like this, too.

Why would you consider the theater responsible? It's not illegal to leave your 8 year old in the arcade, or to let your 8 year old walk to the movie theater and play in the arcade. It's incredibly bad host behavior to leave someone else's 8 year old in the arcade, but that's on the parents, not the movie theater.

I'm going to guess that the parents in this situation would have felt safe leaving their 8 year old in the arcade. I might have felt that way too (it's hard to say without seeing the set up of the movie theater) and when OP's kid asked to stay they didn't think that other parents might have a problem. That doesn't make it OK for them to have left him, they needed to consider that other families have different expectations for safety.