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

[Anonymous]

I can't get over asking kids to pay their own way at a birthday party "because of the number of kids". So invite fewer kids! Wow. My DS had a movie party last year for his 7th and we covered both the movie and the pizza afterwards at the pizza joint across the street from the theater.
This is seriously a who incident. I am very lax and I live in a very small extremely safe town (not DC metro). My kids have a lot of freedom but in this situation I would be absolutely livid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure I believe your son, OP. He only told you this story when you prodded him and he knew he was in trouble. And, the host only said that he said he didn't have money and wanted to wait in the game room and didn't want you to be called. At least as likely a story is that your son decided he wanted to play games and not go to the movie. The host offered to call you, but he said no, he's stay in the game room and play games. Then when he gets called out and is about to be in trouble by you, he makes up the story about losing the money and not being able to go to the movie.

and since when you would let a 8 yo talk you into not calling his parents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure I believe your son, OP. He only told you this story when you prodded him and he knew he was in trouble. And, the host only said that he said he didn't have money and wanted to wait in the game room and didn't want you to be called. At least as likely a story is that your son decided he wanted to play games and not go to the movie. The host offered to call you, but he said no, he's stay in the game room and play games. Then when he gets called out and is about to be in trouble by you, he makes up the story about losing the money and not being able to go to the movie.

no, se says she confirmed his story with the host. did you read the thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Oh no she didn't. I would call her back and absolutely say the next call she gets will be from the family lawyer. She needs a reality check ASAP. This is just not ok. She could have easily asked you for the money when you came to pickup. Ridiculously poor people don't have birthday parties so I'm sure she had the money.

Seriously? You'd lawyer up over this? You'd have to prove damages and there weren't any.

[Anonymous]

"At least as likely a story is that your son decided he wanted to play games and not go to the movie. The host offered to call you, but he said no, he's stay in the game room and play games. Then when he gets called out and is about to be in trouble by you, he makes up the story about losing the money and not being able to go to the movie."

He is 8. Even if that did happen and op's son was refusing to enter the theater the mom of the party kid then had to call op or wait outside with op's son. You cannot just leave him alone in a public spot!!!
But given that the party mom was odd enough to invite 8 kids to a party and pay for none of them I do not find it odd that she was also crazy enough to do what op says.

[Anonymous]

I don't approve of making the kids pay their own way, but the party mom should have collected the ticket money from the parents as the kids were dropped off. 8-year-olds are not reliable money handlers.

I also agree with the PPs who said the kid probably made up the story of losing the money so he could spend the whole time in the game room. Major fail on the party mom for not covering the deficit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Oh no she didn't. I would call her back and absolutely say the next call she gets will be from the family lawyer. She needs a reality check ASAP. This is just not ok. She could have easily asked you for the money when you came to pickup. Ridiculously poor people don't have birthday parties so I'm sure she had the money.

You know this from all of your ridiculously poor friends and their party-less kids?

[Anonymous]

So many aspects of this do not make sense to me. Who in ites kids to a birthday party and expects they pay their own way? What party is 8 hrs long? And most importantly, what parent (make that parentS since based on the mom's response, she and the dad were present) would ever leave an 8 yr old in the lobby/game room when everyone else went into the party? If this is all true, OP, I would be furious but move on, and if this is typical behavior in your area then I'd ask a lot of Qs before letting my son be supervised by other parents again ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many things wrong here. Who is this host?

A) who invites 8-year-olds to a birthday party and doesn't pay?

B) even if you are this tacky, if the kid is short, you pay.

c) even if you are a cheap-ass and won't pay the extra, you call the parents.

Sorry, OP. I didn't realize there were so many people raised by wolves out there. I really would have told the other parent off.

Teach your son your phone number, if you haven't, he should have asked an adult to let him call you.

+1. WTH is wrong with the host?

+ 100. We ALWAYS have paid for all the theater tickets and concessions (way too expensive but what are you going to do?) for any birthday parties we have hosted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure I believe your son, OP. He only told you this story when you prodded him and he knew he was in trouble. And, the host only said that he said he didn't have money and wanted to wait in the game room and didn't want you to be called. At least as likely a story is that your son decided he wanted to play games and not go to the movie. The host offered to call you, but he said no, he's stay in the game room and play games. Then when he gets called out and is about to be in trouble by you, he makes up the story about losing the money and not being able to go to the movie.

I told her what DS told me and she never once corrected the story. If he were to have refused to go into the theater or thrown a fit she should have called me to go get him. Not left him. However she never corrected me and said I he misbehaved and frankly that would be way out of character.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh. Are you sure that your child didn't go to spend the money meant for the ticket and she said "if you spend that,you won't have money for the ticket and I won't buy one for you." She was in the wrong for leaving him unattended, but your kid sounds kind of bratty

He could have very possibly spent the money on anything. I admit it was dumb to give him the money but he is eight. If she felt like she didn't want to give him extra for the ticket I should have been contacted.

Darn straight you should have been.

You have every right to be livid. What the eff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would go to her house, ring the bell, smile and punch her in the nose with a flat hand. Ok, overboard, not smart advise, but this is the rage speaking in me for someone that would leave a child unattended like that. But seriously, go over, talk to the school principal, if there is anything in future like field trip etc that woman should not be allowed to be responsible for children.

While I wouldn't put my hands on her, I'd definitely go and chew her out in person.


Good idea about talking to the school principal. She shouldn't be responsible for kids since she hasn't the faintest idea about what that implies.

And being that rude over the phone? Dear me. I have no words.

[Anonymous]

Id be plotting revenge...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure I believe your son, OP. He only told you this story when you prodded him and he knew he was in trouble. And, the host only said that he said he didn't have money and wanted to wait in the game room and didn't want you to be called. At least as likely a story is that your son decided he wanted to play games and not go to the movie. The host offered to call you, but he said no, he's stay in the game room and play games. Then when he gets called out and is about to be in trouble by you, he makes up the story about losing the money and not being able to go to the movie.

You know, I don't care if the kiddo is lying about which direction the sun rises from in the morning. He wasn't the adult in the situation. The birthday kid's mum should have called. There are no ifs and buts about it, there's no reason on this Earth not to call the boy's mother.

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised the movie place didn't call the cops since an 8 year old was left alone for hours in a strange lobby wathvimg trailers