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An intense debate has erupted after a disagreement over uninvited guests at a child’s birthday party left a mom $111 out of pocket.
The woman turned to Reddit users for advice after she feared she had been the root cause of the blunder.
The mom said she invited all of the boys in her son’s class to his upcoming celebration at Lazer Tag, but was surprised to receive a response from a parent asking if they could also bring two additional children.
“I was extremely confused. I had invited boys, and I realised there must be boy/girl twins in the class,” she said.
“After thinking about it, in [my] opinion there was no confusion on who was invited. I hand wrote names on all the invitations. I’m immediately extremely uncomfortable. This sort of thing gives me extreme anxiety.”
The mom probably would have let it slide if the other parent wanted to bring the invited child’s twin, but including a third sibling seemed excessive.
“We only do a birthday party every other year because it is insanely expensive,” she said.
“The cost of the uninvited children is $74, sorry I’m not willing to pay that. I’ve allowed siblings at birthdays before but the cost was much less, and his class was smaller.”
The woman explained that she has also had to bring siblings to birthday parties when she had no one to watch them, but “made it clear upfront” that she would pay for any additional costs.
In a text to the inquiring parent, the mom detailed her stance.
“Hello! So happy XXXX can come! I apologise for the confusion, we had no idea there were twins in the class and we had just invited the boys. We have a booking but I can call and add two more if you want to pay the additional cost of 74 (37×2),” she wrote.
Despite trying to be “as polite as possible”, the woman said her “mortified” husband took great offence at her request, deeming it to be “extremely rude”, despite also not wanting to pay for the uninvited kids.
After some time, the parent responded that all three of her kids would attend, and was seemingly fine with the $74 payment. Half an hour after the party started, she texted the mom of the birthday boy to say they would be there soon.
But one hour after festivities started, the parent suddenly announced the sibling trio wouldn’t be attending at all, leaving the mom hosting the event $111 out of pocket, and very annoyed.
“We changed the reservation because she said all three kids would come the night before the party. My husband paid the bill based on the reservation we made, and the pre-ordered food,” the mom said.
Despite concerns that she was in the wrong, Reddit users largely declared the mom was not an “a**hole” and had made a “reasonable request”.
“Trying to bring two extra kids to a party you weren’t invited to is wild. The audacity of some parents is unreal,” one person said.
“This has happened to my children’s birthday parties. I have had to pay the difference. It’s not fair to the invited kids because the uninvited siblings expect a goodie bag too. Then I’m the bad guy to not have extras,” another commented.
“The rude person is the one who wants to dump all of her kids at your birthday party,” someone else said.
However, several people reprimanded the mom for asking for money for the additional children, calling the move “tacky”.
“Should’ve just said no,” one person said.
“I think it would be better to say that you can’t accommodate the extra kids than to send them an invoice,” another chimed in.
“I’m a ‘more the merrier’ person, but it’s completely OK and very understandable for people to have a budget at a venue. I probably would have responded that the party is capped and it’s a set package deal,” someone else said.
Others pondered why the mom was hosting elaborate parties for her children, to which she responded that the rate is standard at venues like Lazer Tag and Chuck E. Cheese.
Australians are spending an average of $1118 on their kids’ birthday parties, according to a Decathlon survey released last week.
