Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

7yo not invited to classmates party despite her talking about it

164 replies

Inciwinci · 08/04/2019 00:23

7 year old son came home several days this week excited by and convinced that he had been invited to a party because a classmate (who we had invited to his party) had been talking to him about the party coming up at the end of easter holidays. I had had no invite or notification from mum. I was informed by another mum that "whole class parties" stops after the 5th birthday. When we organised DS (FB) we invited 10 and had a situation where someone's parents got wind and made it clear that their DD would love to come. We gracefully added her on and fun was had by all. We also coached DS not to talk about his event around anyone who was not invited and from what I can tell he stuck to this. So today, at village kids event, I asked classmate's mum if DS was invited and was told no, we can only invite 10 for practical reasons. There was no apology or acknowledgement that her child has caused hurt and disappointment and potential humiliation to DS. I handled it with my DS in the "you get invited sometimes, sometimes you dont/do you actually play that much with her?/there are folk that you didnt invite to yours etc." but inside I am absolutely distraught and spent the afternoon partly in tears and apologising to my DS for all the times I failed as a mother.
It has been a struggle to teach my DS to socialise - he thinks and responds slowly and always has, but has recently started to enjoy the company of classmates, likes playing in the playground, has occasionally been over to play at others and they have been over to us, but it feels that just as he is starting to catch up a bit, the bitchiness (of parents) that I remember from my teenage years is what my kids have to deal with, so very much younger.
I am not sure what I am asking for here. I want to be able to help my son to find and enjoy the company of mates and make friends but the revelation that he is among kids of parents who might not have ever had to read about ASD and neurotypical and non-neurotypical and who don't coach their kids to be sensitive to the feelings of others makes me sick.
AIBU... I want to get my kids out of the school (there are other children who bring behaviour which the others have to learn to assert themselves with) for this reason and other concerns further up the school about the academic standards..
How do I get past this feeling of extreme dread and helplessness because the reality that there is very little I can do... And I kind of know I should not be so triggered by it. but I cant fight it...

OP posts:
WhatToDoAboutWailmerGoneRogue · 08/04/2019 08:26

spent the afternoon partly in tears and apologising to my DS for all the times I failed as a mother

This type of behaviour from you OP is absolutely unacceptable. You are placing a huge emotional toll on your son and that is unfair and tantamount to emotional abuse. He shouldn’t have to worry about you.

It will also show him you are emotionally unstable and mean he will also struggle to learn to be resilient.

SandyY2K · 08/04/2019 08:26

I'd say it's normal to tell your child not to talk about their party when not everyone has been invited.

Nothing wrong with it and it's being sensitive not sneaky.

OP... I think you went wrong in inviting the additional person, however I did the same thing once myself. It was very awkward and the child..who was 7 or 8 at the time asked in front of me. I actually didn't want this child there, because of her behaviour, but as a mum, I still felt sorry for her in the moment.

In this case, DD had not been talking about the party, but other kids who were invited did talk about it.

I realised that you might be able to coach your own child, not all the others.

After that, I passed invitations on outside of school and DD didn't have to deal with it. If any kids mentioned it, DD was instructed to tell them her mum was dealing with everything.

Thank God those days are over... DD is now 19 yo.

Eustasiavye · 08/04/2019 08:27

You are over reacting.
Lord help you when your child hits the teenage years and the hormones really do start to kick in.
You lost my sympathy by stating" why don't we invite x, their parents seem nice" or words to that effect.
So you try to influence your child's choice of friends based on how well to do you perceive their parents to be. Well it's no wonder your son is beginning n ing to be excluded then is it? Perhaps the other parents are beginning to judge you too op.
I hate this sort of parenting.
You excluded lots of children yet have the nerve to ask for your son to be invited, no I'd be avoiding you like the plague.
I've been through all of this.
Believe me you are going to encounter much worse.

JellySlice · 08/04/2019 08:31

You are over-reacting. It was the other mum's job to teach her dc only to talk to invitees about the party. I've been that mum. I didn't know that my dd was talking about her party to someone who was not going to be invited. The other mum contacted me and asked for clarification, then asked me to speak to my dd. Which of course I did - and I apologised to the other mum.

lottiegarbanzo · 08/04/2019 08:32

Gosh. What is normal at seven is exactly these smaller parties of ten or so. It is also completely normal that children will talk about their parties at school, including to people who aren't invited. They get excited about birthdays and parties. 6/7yos are not adults with fully developed social graces.

Most DC cope with this adequately at this age, though not always. Mostly they understand that each child is more friendly with some people than others, so in many cases they wouldn't expect to be invited, or even want to go. There are though plenty of 'borderline' cases where kids do feel left out.

It is also completely normal for parents to go through an amount of tricky negotiation, when deciding with their DC who will be invited. Parents are more aware of the longer-term implications of short-term choices and that 6 and 7yo friendships can be very unstable, with someone in favour one week, not the next. My experience is that it is tricky but, so long as you're not doing anything blatantly horrible, like inviting every boy in the class bar one, you just have to do your best, get on with it and, stick with your decision - parenting in a nutshell really.

My observation is that you appear to expect far too much of neurotypical DC. You seem to be putting them on a pedestal of adult social expectation, expecting them to be everything your DS is not. They have far more more in common with him than you think. They're all 6/7yos, all with their own social struggles and disappointments.

You also seem to expect their parents to have undergone a training course in dealing with the specifc needs of your child. That is a really odd expectation. the revelation that he is among kids of parents who might not have ever had to read about ASD and neurotypical and non-neurotypical and who don't coach their kids to be sensitive to the feelings of others makes me sick. How on earth is that 'a revelation'?!

Yes, parents should and do teach their children to be kind and, children sometimes but not always remember. Again, they are all 6/7yos, they all get excited and want to talk about their parties. I think it would be quite unhealthy to expect them not to. It would actually mean teaching them to be sneaky, manipulative, tell white lies and form cliques - excluding uninvited DC from everyday play, so they don't become part of a 'party' conversation. Be careful what you wish for.

Much better to teach them to be open, honest, naturally excited and say 'sorry I could only invite ten people'.

You know this is a massive overreaction and won't help: inside I am absolutely distraught and spent the afternoon partly in tears and apologising to my DS for all the times I failed as a mother.

No-one is being 'bitchy' here. That's a horrible thing for you to say about parents and children who are behaving completely normally and being in no way unkind.

You need to be really careful not to project your negativity and twisted interpretations onto your own interactions with people, as well as your son's. You risk becoming the bitchy one, by seeing and responding in kind to 'bitchiness' where there is none.

MsTSwift · 08/04/2019 08:35

Fgs they are 7! They can’t be expected to pick up every nuanced social nicety to spare adults feelings. This whole thing is a learning experience
Being thoughtful and careful if inviting small group
Dealing with disappointment if not invited (clue no wailing or knashing of teeth if left out particularly if you only invited a small group yourself!)
Our job to teach kids to handle this stuff

ittakes2 · 08/04/2019 08:35

I get why you feel upset - you have tried to do the right thing and would like others to do the same. But in reality this is life and I'm sorry this will not be the first time this happens. I agree with others, I think you should go to the doctor's to enquire about CBT therapy. By helping to build your resilence, you will have the skills to show your son how to build residence.

lottiegarbanzo · 08/04/2019 08:40

Also, believe what people tell you, instead of seeking to impose negative inpretations. 'We can only have ten for practical reasons' probably means they can only have ten for practical reasons. Adding an extra one probably isn't an option.

Contraceptionismyfriend · 08/04/2019 08:41

YABU. And you massively overreacted. You need to seriously get a grip of your issues before you foist them onto your children. You may think you hid your ridiculous reaction but the risk is children are hyper aware.

blueskiesovertheforest · 08/04/2019 08:51

Inciwinci 's son doesn't have an ASD diagnosis but is being parented by a mother who spends afternoons crying and apologising to a 7 year old about having failed as a mother.

It's not his classmates who are the problem.

There's also the fact that as something like one in 60 children has an ASD diagnosis by age 8, and in some mainstream schools up to 50% of children have some form of SEN, of the children Inciwinci thinks are being insufficiently sensitive to her DS (who she has privately self diagnosed but decided not to seek the opinion of any professional who isn't a family member) may have a diagnosis themselves...

AfterSchoolWorry · 08/04/2019 08:53

You cried in front of him?

murmuration · 08/04/2019 08:56

I don't think anyone other than that other mum who clearly angled for an invite to your party did anything wrong. But then your reaction was strange.

A 6-turning-7yo being excited about his party (and even telling people they were coming before it was planned) is perfectly normal. I told my DD to not talk about her 7th Bday party as we weren't sure how many we could invite, but it totally didn't work.

Limiting numbers: normal. But so is checking, politely, in case you got left off. Sometimes invites do go awry, and I've seen the advice here time and again that it's okay to approach the other parent in a 'just checking' way, which is what you said you did.

But if the just check is an actual no, also fine to say so simply. And it doesn't need a profuse apology! It also sounds like your DS and this child weren't the best friends, if she was added at your suggestion looking for a female because she and he seemed to chat some. As many said, the smirk could have been many things, including feeling awkward and uncomfortable and looking for some reassurance!

That you gave into that other Mum is your own thing, and something this Mum wouldn't have known! As is your history.

Thisnamechanger · 08/04/2019 09:00

inside I am absolutely distraught and spent the afternoon partly in tears and apologising to my DS for all the times I failed as a mother

Not being funny but you probably scared the shit out of him!

Ilikethinkingupnewnames · 08/04/2019 09:02

I don't agree with bright and breezy approach. If you child is sad acknowledging that feeling is important, as they need to learn to deal with disappointment.

Also this who don't coach their kids to be sensitive to the feelings of others makes me sick. is not very helpful, they are 7, not capable at managing the feelings of an entire class.

Aeroflotgirl · 08/04/2019 09:02

Oh no why did you ask her whether ds was invited to the party, that sounds a bit desparate. By the sounds of it, they had a small party, so not a whole class party. Just teach your ds to be resilient, they will pick up from you if you are anxious and upset about it.

Ilikethinkingupnewnames · 08/04/2019 09:06

he volunteered that he had in fact not mentioned the not inviting to the one kid ( who hits, spits, pretends he doesnt and that its all a game that everyone likes playing). so you didn't invite the kid that had obvious problems? Do you really think at 7 your son and his friends didn't once talk about the party in front of him?
@blueskiesovertheforest what's good for the goose..

DameSylvieKrin · 08/04/2019 09:11

I don’t think being a doctor necessarily means you don’t need one. My GP in the nineties walked out of the surgery and jumped off a motorway bridge, and I remember reading then in the local paper that doctors have worse mental health than average.
I guess you still had someone else deliver your baby even though you’re a doctor?
You don‘t have to live a life where you apologise to your son for your failings. A therapist can help you.

FrancisCrawford · 08/04/2019 09:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Inciwinci · 08/04/2019 09:18

Jelly slice,
I think I should have asked the other mum to speak to her child like you did but I just expected her to recognise what had happened and apologise because he had been going on and on about this party..
But she didn’t give a shit. Also just to clarify again, I wasn’t asking for an invite, simply for the facts in order to manage DS expectation. I had previously thought that this mum was sensitive enough to get that, but she isnt and neither are many of the folks on here... this has been fascinating but it is great that folk get to speak their minds, even if they have missed some of the story... equally it makes me reflect why we all don’t just speak our minds all the time... maybe useful if I am going to have to accept that there is a bit of ASD to be dealing with with DS...

OP posts:
Inciwinci · 08/04/2019 09:19

I’m intrigued by how people respond to someone’s emotional honesty on here as well...

OP posts:
MakeItRain · 08/04/2019 09:20

I remember being shocked the first time my dd was excluded from a party by a girl in her circle of friends (who loudly gave invites to everyone but her) I think I was more hurt than she was though! I also remember my ds taking home the class bear, and reading through the book to see photos of the whole class clearly enjoying a party that he hadn't been invited to. Sad

It's horrible, but it probably bothers us mums more than our children. As they get older they find their little groups of friends and the massive parties tail off anyway.

Just focus on doing something lovely with your ds instead, like the pp who took her child out using the money saved from not buying a present.

I can still a bit sad for my ds; he doesn't get many party invites. But I keep it inside. For his own birthday "party" he decided he wants a lovely day with just one friend so we'll be doing that.

Flowers for you though, because no matter how much you "understand" that it's just kids/a learning curve for them/not always personal, it does still feel a bit shit.

Contraceptionismyfriend · 08/04/2019 09:21

Her child hasn't done anything wrong! He's a bloody child! Of course he's excited. Of course he's going to talk about what is a big life event for him. Maybe you should work on becoming a bit more resilient.

lottiegarbanzo · 08/04/2019 09:22

One other comment is that, if your DS does have some form of ASD, he may be more dependent on you to set the social context and emotional tone of his life, to an older age, than many other DCs.

Many DCs, growing up with an anxious, negative mother, might recognise that she has a problem and distance themselves from that rather stifling environment, socially, as teenagers. A child with ASD may not have the social perspective and confidence to do that, so may be more in thrall to you and dependent upon you to set the social tone of their lives. Please try to make that context cheerful and positive.

GreenTulips · 08/04/2019 09:27

I totally get why you don’t want your child labelled, however if he needs extra help in school it will need funding and to get this he’ll need a diagnosis. He’ll also be protected under the disabilities act.

It’s your choice. But you have time to think about it.

Unfortunately you’ll notice a lot of parents of children with disabilities are left out, ignored, don’t get invites.

Maybe your DS will turn it round, maybe he’ll find some friends who are more accepting.

TacoLover · 08/04/2019 09:30

but inside I am absolutely distraught and spent the afternoon partly in tears and apologising to my DS for all the times I failed as a mother.

Confused

You failed as a mother and cried because he didn't get invited to a party? Complete overreaction. He will get over it.

Swipe left for the next trending thread