Birthday parties are meant to be fun where kids have a good time with their friends and have delicious treats. However, a parent felt the party was stressful and not fun since her child too was getting restless and cranky. Read the story and let us know how you would deal with such a situation.
Source: Reddit
Ok, this sounds bad but hear me out. My 3yo was invited to her preschool classmate’s birthday party at an indoor playground. We did arrive 10 late since we got lost trying to find the place, but we happened to arrive at the same time as 2 other families, so it could have looked planned.
The birthday boy’s mom was clearly irritated, because we missed a treasure hunt. There was no schedule given so I didn’t realise it would be a big of a deal if we were 10 min late, or I would’ve rushed more.
We all made sure our kids wished the birthday boy happy birthday & passed him his presents, but they immediately ran towards the train ride once they were done. Turns out the mom wanted to organise a group photo shoot with the kids so she was annoyed they ran off.
The kids then could do whatever they liked for maybe 10-15 min before we had to follow the itinerary we didn’t realise we had. The kids had 2 group rides, which always came with a photoshoot before each ride.
Then they were free to play for just another 5-10 min before they had to go for another photoshoot with the cake.
Then the parents had to take photos. Our country still had indoor mask mandates, but we were told it’s legal to have masks off for photos & were ordered to take off our masks. Then we had the cake cutting and another round of photos, before food was served.
It hasn’t even been 2h & we’ve had 4 photo taking sessions, taking up almost an hour. My daughter didn’t want to eat & I could see she was losing it. Especially since there was a spread of beautifully decorated desserts that weren’t offered to anyone at all, so I wouldn’t let her touch them.
I figured I should just leave before I ruin the party since we already had 2 meltdowns in the last 10 min, but my daughter leaving triggered her 2 friends asking to leave, which triggered even more kids demanding to leave. The party ended up getting cut short by 30min.
The mom is obviously pissed with me, and I agree I did ruin the party & I knew if my daughter leaves, there’s a chance I’d trigger that snowball effect. And yes, I believe it’s important not to expect society to cater to my child’s whims & it’s my job as a parent to make sure she behaves, but I think she has been doing an amazing job not running off & doing her own thing. I found the entire party stressful & not fun at all, so I figured my kid probably feels the same. So am I one of those entitled moms here?
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