Another mum picked up her teen after party and refused others a lift despite agreement to do so.

[Lardybumbum]

The background story is my 16 year old daughter, her 15 yo boyfriend and two of their class mates were invited to a party a few rural towns away. I agreed to give them a lift there if one of their mums agreed to run them back. One mum said she would do that and her kid confirmed again when I dropped them all off.

The town is only 15 mins away but there’s no public transport after 6pm on weekends (and at that no direct public transport between our towns having to go into a city and back out again) and being Halloween there were no taxis /ubers who were all working in the city.

Well the boys mum left my daughter, her boyfriend and one friend and only took her son home. All four were standing outside the house at 11.45pm waiting for her and she literally drove off with just him in the car saying the others couldn’t come. I get a tearful phone call from a very panicked daughter so I get out of bed and go get them. I have to take medication at night that I’m wary of driving on (although it isn’t illegal) but I’m not leaving my kid in the middle of nowhere. The other parents had all been drinking so couldn’t.

Aibu to think that was an arsehole move on behalf of the other mother to allow her kid to accept the ride and agree to the deal she would pick up them to just leave them and take her kid home? Her kid messaged my daughter today there wasn’t any mitigating reason for her leaving them she just didn’t want to.

She lives two streets away and I’m tempted to go and say something. If I’d been drinking there would have been no one to get them and they’d have been stranded (there’s no way to walk between towns either).

Is everyone here on glue? Op and another parent had an agreement to let their kids go to a party together, and get home safely together. Home journey parent left 3 kids abandoned late at night after changing their mind. Of course home journey parent is an arse. When my kids are home from uni I still make sure they and their friends are home safe at night if I agreed to be taxi. When they were 16 they were at Young Farmers parties, which really were in the back of beyond - think barn with just a what3words address and cows as neighbours. The parents of the friendship group always and without exception made sure each and every child in the group had means to get home at the end of the night. If anyone needs to throw up, you wind down the window. It sets your kids up in good stead for the future, in that it's drilled into them to arrive as a group and leave with (at least) the same.

Very valid point.

Although the OP wasn't drinking she clearly said The other parents had all been drinking so couldn’t so that was 4 other parents who couldn't get out to get their kids? Seems silly given the rural location and lack of other options for the kids to get back.

What an arsehole! I would be furious and VERY tempted to say something to this parent. Definitely NO favours for her, ever again.

These kind of threads remind me why l couldn’t live in the arse end of nowhere. It all sounds very tiresome. If OP insists on living somewhere like this then there probably will be a lot of Mum’s taxi

I know. No public transport, no taxis, reliant on driving everyone and making arrangements which can go wrong. I'm glad mine were able to use public transport or got a black cab or an Uber fairly quickly!

We have one taxi company with 3 or 4 drivers and still don’t have uber here! Some people really don’t understand rural living.

Yes, the OP hadn't been drinking but obviously has some health problems. It's really bad that the other parents had been drinking, potentially leaving teenagers stuck somewhere.

No, I'm hoping this thread informs people just how bad it is.

I hope you appreciate the work rural communities to do feed you. Rather than calling it tiresome.

I wouldn’t bother confronting her, an arsehole like that will only shout at you. From now on, her child never gets a lift, no exceptions. It doesn’t matter how much the mum begs and pleads, actions have consequences.

This

It's shocking that you're so badly served by public transport.

We do have buses! The bus that links all the little local towns and goes to there nearest bigger town runs up until 8pm.
But the bus that takes us to Glasgow only runs till 6pm and doesn’t run on weekends.

We got Uber by accident. The local rumour is that a driver did a drop-off from the nearest big town and decided to hang around for a while to see if he could pick up any jobs because his usual area was very quiet that day.

Word soon got around that there was an (as in singular) Uber in town, and he was inundated with work and texted a few of his Uber mates to check it out.

It's still not the same as ordering Uber in a big town. You cannot click in the app and have a car appear within a few minutes. The average wait is 30-60 minutes, but it's a country mile better than having to book days in advance.

That's what I meant by "badly served".
I didn't say non existent.

Ah, OK thanks. The thread had grown so much since I first posted that I couldn't really catch up. I saw OP being a bit defensive and must admit I assumed her thread had gone down the usual MN route.

I'd be annoyed with the host's parents actually for not checking everyone had been picked up and turning the lights out and going to bed. Even if they were dealing with their drunk daughter, they hosted the party for under 18s, I think they are responsible for everyone's wellbeing.