Typical pre-school party at a little soft-play centre.
Halfway through one child rushes out of the play cage and is sick in a bin. His mother and several other parents sort him out, wipe up, change his clothes etc - then he rushes back in to play as if nothing happened.
His mother drags the bin over to the entrance to the play cage in case he needs it again. Which he does, five minutes later. People are looking a bit wtf at this point and I am pretending I don't see it as I don't want to get wound up. In total the boy is sick three times in the bin - the bin which we are using right next to the food table - and goes back in to play each time.
He looked dreadful, but was cheerful enough so she said it was a shame to spoil his fun. AIBU to think if your child pukes at a party, you take them home? At one point she had half the parents helping her wipe the floor and change his clothes. People treat her very kindly (myself included) because her son has mild autism and she is a single parent managing completely alone. I have extended huge empathy and friendship towards her. But I really think letting him throw up three times, very publicly, at my child's party is more than a bit off.
What do you reckon?
Also - this is weird too I think: at the end of the party, one parent (who I barely know) started cutting down the balloons and handing them out to children. After she had cut down the balloons provided by the soft-play people she started on our own helium balloons which had been sent to DS as a present from his granny for his party. They were in a bunch of 5 by the food table and were obviously our own. DH had to ask her not to but by then children were literally queuing up for their "take-home balloon".
That's weird, no? And grabby?
As I'm on a roll - one more thing: there was an older child there, looked about 8/9, I have no idea who she came with and didn't manage to ask. It was really odd as the equipment was clearly for little ones. I let it go but at the end the people running the place handed out the party bags and she took one! A bag filled with bits of things for toddlers!
AIBU to think all this is most peculiar behaviour? Or have I just not been to enough parties to know any better?
AIBU?
Things that happened at my son's birthday party
MauriceMinor · 10/02/2014 01:35
The sick child should have been taken home.
The balloon lady was out of order but probably thought she was helping out. She will probably be the class rep, volunteer in class and help on all school trips whether it's needed or not 
The sibling thing I don't get. I have 3 dss, we have held and attended many birthday parties, and never have I taken a sibling to a party they have not been invited to or has anyone left an uninvited sibling at one of our parties. Ds3's 6th birthday one mum dropped off her son, went shopping and came back an hour before the end with his younger sibling. She payed for the sibling to come in (soft play) declined food which I offered as there was plenty and kept the younger boy away from the party. She was even hesitant at taking a party bag and balloon for him despite us having plenty extra.
It all sounds weird to me OP. But people never cease to amaze me with what they do and think is acceptable. I'm with your DH, i'd be furious about the balloons.
At my first wedding people acted so outrageously and everyone just shrugged and looked at me like i was odd. Just a couple of the things were exH's aunts/uncles/cousins putting the champagne put out (and unopened yet) for toasts in their bags. Totally unashamedly. When i went over doing the rounds after the toasts i noticed 4 bottles unopened by their feet. I asked what they were doing and they said 'oh we don't really like champagne so we just drank the table wine at the toasts and thought we'd take 'our allocation' of champagne home and give them to friends' 
Erm no, if you don't want any it goes back in the 'pot' for everyone else.
We had used miniature rose bushes in nice pots as table decorations, and were planning on giving them out to MIL, BMs, M.O.B. etc as gifts. But instead my aunty left straight after the meal and as the tables were being cleared (wait staff had been told to put all plants aside) she took it upon herself to load the boot of her car with them and give them to her church 'as she didn't want them to go to waste'. She didn't check that we had any plans for them and just drove off. I saw her out of the window doing it and mum said 'oh yeah...' i said wtf? but mum didn't want me to make a scene. Fucking cheek of it all
Anyway, i'm afraid i am much less accommodating now and would have told balloon bastards that they had to get all the balloons back and explain to the children it wasn't in their power to give your sons gifts away. Outrageous.
benevolent gift tart
I need to find a reason to use this in my day today 
YANBU at all OP. What is it about children' s parties and weddings that seem to bring the worse out in people? Have to admit though I do love a good party rage thread
I have to give my contribution of jaw dropping entitlement/grabbiness.
Last month Ds and about 20 others were invited to his classmates 5th birthday party held at a small soft play centre with a pub attached that did food etc. Ds's school is the town centre and the playcentre was a couple of miles out of town, next to a shopping complex. As I don't have a car I was a bit worried about getting there and back on time, but the Childs mother sensing that this was a problem for a few of the parents kindly handed out a intimation to all invitee's. It included a photocopied bus time table with marked buses at suitable times and some taxi cab numbers as well. Very thoughtful of her.
On the afternoon of the party we arrived to see that another party was also taking place at the same time. Now the softplay that holds the parties does different levels of parties, with a basic party package being the cheapest which included 1 hours free play,free jugs of squash,a basic party buffet and a few games after the meal. The more expensive package included extras such as facepainting for each child, a foil ballon each, a photograph taken with one the venues characters, a refreshments upgrade from a jug of squash to bottled branded drinks and a tea/coffee for accompanying adults.
Where we live is a pretty deprived area and most people are suffering the affects of the recession the birthday boys mum included. She made it clear in the invitation and by talking to us that the party she had booked for her Ds was the basic package. She also told us that she had paid for 20 children only and that any extra children would cost her 7.99 a head. Fair enough, glad to be invited.
So as I say we arrive, complete chaos and tbh completely overcrowded with nowhere to sit. My Ds ran straight off to play and hung around like a loose part. I noticed there was a face painter near the entrance painting childrens faces and loads of foil ballons but assumed correctly they must be for the other party who must have booked theore expensive party. Anyway it came to an end and I went to find the birthday boys mum who I hadn't really seen during the entire party but couldn't find her. Worried about missing my bus we left. I felt rude but there wasn't much I could do as I didn't even have her number.
Saw her at school the following Monday and it turns out all hell had broken loose after we left. Apparently 4 of the mothers had gone up to her and demanded she pay for their taxi fares both to the party and back, and became really aggressive saying they had no money left now and couldn't get home without her coughing up and as she had given out taxi numbers they thought it was a given that travel fare was included. These women didn't speak English as a first language and the whole argument got quite confusing so the party mum gave them 20 out of her ds's birthday money. Apparently they still weren't happy with that as they needed to take separate cabs but in the end finally left with that.
Then as she goes to leave the Softplay supervisor hands her a bill which included 5 facepaints at 2 a go, 5 helium balloons at 1.50 each and about 15 worth of drinks. She questioned what the hell was going on as she had agreed the basic package and had already paid. The supervisor explained that a group of women had enquired about the extras they saw other party children having and said their dc wanted facepainting and balloons too. The supervisor told the women that additional extras could be purchased separately but the women would have to pay for them, themselves or get the party mum's permission and password, extras would then be added to the account. He claimed one of the women went away (suposedly to speak to party mum but never did) and came back and told him she'd said it was fine and told him the password. Somehow the password was right and these women then gorged themselves and their dc's on coffees, fruitshoots, slices of cake and free facepainting etc, all at the poor party mums expense [anger]
I asked her how on earth they guessed the password and she said she didn't think it was important and that when asked she simply gave the birthday boys name. So easy to guess. I asked her if she has confronted the arseholes who did this but she said she had no proof for definate who it was but she strongly suspected it was the taxi mums. The class teacher did ask about as did a few other mums but everyone asked denied everything. The poor mum was absolutely gutted and needless to say when my ds's party comes round soon I am going to be extremely careful who I invite!
Sorry it so long but I'm still furious when I think about it 
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Anyone could have told the mum to take him (sick child) home
Well, not really; they were obviously waiting for the party host to take charge... Why didn't you, op? 
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