To not particularly want Dd’s friend to help decorate the tree

I agree.

I am an only child and I had a great childhood. At 7 I had a neighbour best friend and we were in and out of each others houses - funnily enough my parents had a caveat of no friends in before 10am too - Christmas decs was something Dad and I did and loved having that time with him and look back at it fondly. Probably if you had given the 7 yo me the choice I would have said I wanted BF there but it would have changed the dynamic and I'm sure BF's parents would have found it a bit odd. Unless you grow up in glorious isolation somewhere, there is no reason for onlies to be desperately lonely! Doesn't sound like OP's DD has time to be lonely!

@Izzywizzy85 and @CheeseIsMyIdol Unfortunately @babyproblems is preaching to the choir on here. She is blathering on at a bunch of fiesty and assertive women who don't suffer fools gladly and won't be guilt tripped by all this 'BEKIND' wankery. We've been there, done that, bought the fucking t-shirt, and lived that shit. We don't sucumb to emotional blackmail, and the 'gosh you should be more KIND' crap. 😆It doesn't work on us sugar!

As I said, no way, in a million month of Sundays would any MAN receive such bullshit guilt tripping. And if he did, he would say 'ha ha, LOL, get fucked!' 😎

Yeah, I am happy to stay OFF Santa's NICE list thanks, if it means doing anything and everything anyone and everyone wants me to do, no matter how miserable and stressed it makes me feel, in the name of #BEKIND!

You do you though hun. You continue to #BEKIND and I (and the rest of the posters on here who think like me) will continue to be ridiculously harsh and UNKIND, and proper grinches. Better than being a mug, and a doormat, and letting all and sundry walk all over you, and treat you like shit, lest you be accused of not BEING KIND!!!!!!!

I didn't realize until this thread how many mawkish people were so ready and willing to guilt someone else with sappy, smarmy #bekind bullshit.

I never realised 😂 how little people value family time 😂 😂 and are happy to let their neighbours walk all over them and dump their kid on them whenever they feel like!

I didn’t realise until this thread, how mean some people can be about Christmas. Honestly I think some of the replies here are ridiculously harsh considering the discussion is about two young girls and a Christmas tree 😂 and so many people so completely unprepared to show kindness over said Xmas tree or even make any concessions and grinching about even offering a Christmas crafting activity or similar for two young girls who are excited to do something festive together! Honestly I think many here are lucky Father Xmas isn’t real or you wouldn’t be on his nice list!!! 😂

I think OP wouldn't feel so strongly or be so exasperated if this girl wasn't - probably through no fault of her own, just enabled by adults - monopolising quite so much of the family's time the rest of the year.

😂

🙄

Exactly. The welfare, well-being, and happiness of some random neighbour's child is NOT the OP's responsibility, and frankly I am sick of all this #BeKind bullshit, guilt-tripping, and emotional blackmail that is being poured all over the OP. No-one would do this to a man - ever.

@Decemberisthemostexpensivemonth You do what you want with your daughter, you do NOT have to include this child. Ignore people telling you to #BEKIND !!!!!!!!!!!!!

If the child does not understand boundaries and so on and so on, it's time she bloody well learned about them! She is not your responsibilty. Despite all the guff and waffle about a 'village' and all that jazz.

Oh for goodness' sake!
🙄🙄🙄

It doesn't sound like she gets time to be lonely. She's either at school or this girl is banging on the door to be let in.

I didn't mean palming off the child on the grandmother. I meant the grandma is palming off the kid on the neighbour! 7.30 am is FAR too early for a 7 year old to be texting using Grandma's phone and coming round to knock or ringing.

You need to hold your ground firm and don't let the spoiled child get away with it. If you give in now, it will be worse in the future. I am sorry that it's you who needs to teach this lesson to this kid instead of her parents. Look at it as a way to educate the brat. You will be doing her a favour.

@Goldengirl123 ah, the ‘lonely, only child’ rhetoric.

Op doesn’t want this child to join on this one afternoon. Given she says her DD plays with this child frequently, how do you get to the conclusion that she’s so lonely, one afternoon doing something with her parents will be detrimental?! Ridic.

I'm assuming this poster didn't read the update where OP clarified that is the girls grandma's house, however, she spends some weeknights and most weekends there.

We don't know enough to say whether the girls parents are being inconsiderate here (they may not know that their daughter spends most weekends at her grandma's at the next door neighbour's house and calls them up at 7.30am) but the grandma certainly is.

Its Ops choice, by saying no, its her boundary, it wont become expected that the friend must be a part of it.
It's obvious that little girl feels more comfortable at Ops, i do feel sad for her tho, which is probably unwarranted due to my own neglect as a child

@CheeseIsMyIdol do you have young children? I think whilst you have young children decorating the tree is more child centric. If you don't have young children or any children then it obviously is more an adult affair.

Your tree trimming event sounds great but I can't imagine doing it like that if I had young children in the house and they weren't allowed anywhere near the tree. We can now do it like that as DC is now at uni and much more interested in his mates and partner. But we might save putting the star on the top of the tree for him for when he is at home!

I agree your daughters friend does have a young grandma. OP you already know the answer you have said this is your family time so stick to your guns! I like other suggestions about having the friend over to decorate a small tree.

I’m not being sarcastic. Why would I? Cheeseboard, champagne, something nice for dinner afterward like steak. Our tree trimming is not a kiddie event.

Christmas is not “mainly for kid” in my world.

'Christmas is primarily for children' is a ruse dreamt up by parents to force non-parents into working Christmas for them.

Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Christ, the clue is in the name.

Santa Claus as you know him was invented by Cola Cola in 1931 to boost sales.

Of course not but Christmas is primarily for children as we all know - Santa Claus is a big clue as is the fact that it's the busiest time of the year for toy sales.

I would have a word with one of her parents/grandparents about that. That's not OK, far too early to be knocking on people's doors

Erm did you miss the part where I stated that OP is not unreasonable and has every right to her family traditions?
Do you always over react like this?