A single dad has taken to social media to ask users online for advice after he banned one child from his daughter’s birthday party but invited the rest of the class
A single father has ignited a fiery debate online after he chose to support his daughter’s decision to exclude a particular boy from her birthday bash. The dad, who is still getting to grips with parenthood, revealed on Reddit that his daughter had left out a classmate named Nick from her seventh birthday party guest list due to his continuous rude behaviour towards her throughout the school year.
Instead of pushing his daughter to ‘be the bigger person’, the devoted dad stood by her choice and faced off with Nick’s parents when they questioned him. He shared: “I’ll be honest I’m still learning the ropes with this whole dad thing. Only been in my daughter’s life for over a year after finding out about her and taking over since her mum’s no longer in the picture.”
The celebration, set to take place in his backyard, was marred by the issue with Nick, who he described as a notorious bully that other parents have also complained about. “She just turned 7 and we’re having a small birthday celebration in my backyard with her classmates this weekend. When school opened again we started having problems with one kid in particular ‘Nick.’ A lot of the parents have been complaining about him because he’s a huge bully to the other kids and gets benched (basically a time out) a lot during recess.
“I’ve had talks with the teacher because he made my daughter cry after teasing her constantly about her mum.” He says her teachers” promised” to put an end to the bullying – and vowed to keep Nick away from his daughter to prevent further upset.
“Supposedly they’ve had many talks with the mum but all she seems to do is baby the kid. He hasn’t bothered my daughter since my talk with the teacher”, he added.
“So for my daughter’s birthday, she decided to invite almost everyone in the class – obviously except for Nick. His mum confronted me after school when I was picking her up. I guess he was crying that he didn’t get an invitation. I had my daughter wait in the car and this lady was giving me hell for excluding her son when this could’ve been a chance for him to finally get along with his classmates.”
Defending his daughter’s choice, the father maintained that she shouldn’t have to invite someone who bullies her and makes her uncomfortable.
He said: “She just kept saying I should be ashamed of myself for not taking this opportunity to teach my daughter a valuable lesson on learning compassion. It was just a really intense encounter but in the end I still refused to give an invitation since my daughter said she doesn’t want Nick at her party. I’m still thinking about the whole interaction.”
Now questioning his decision, the dad is seeking advice from the online community, expressing his uncertainty: “I’ve never dealt with a parent like that and being still new to it all myself I’m sort of having doubts on how I handle it. Did I do the right thing or wrong? I want my daughter to be comfortable and happy on her b-day but I get this upset another kid.”
Reacting to his post, one user said: “The only ‘lesson’ that needs to be learned here is that treating people badly will get you excluded from things.”
Another added their opinion: “She should be ashamed of herself. This would be a great opportunity for her to teach her son about the consequences of his actions.”
A third weighed in: “It’s your daughter’s party and she didn’t want to invite him. If his mum wants him to have a chance to get along with the other kids, why can’t she host a party?”