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'My daughter, 8, never gets invited to birthday parties - nobody likes her'

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Her daughter never gets invited to parties (stock) (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Her daughter never gets invited to parties (stock) (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A heartbroken mum has revealed how her daughter never gets invited to classmate's birthday parties - making her wonder whether there's 'something wrong' with her child.

Describing her eight-year-old daughter as "very vibrant and friendly', she says she doesn't understand why nobody likes her enough to invite her to their birthday parties, especially when she invites them to hers. Desperate for answers, she asked Reddit users: "When she was in kindergarten, she was invited to parties all the time. Now it’s not so much. Is this normal?

"Sometimes she finds out kids she thought she was friends with had a party, but they didn’t invite her. Understandably this makes her very sad. We just found out today that a family friend is having a birthday party for their son, and they invited a mutual family friend but not us.

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"We literally walk to school every morning with this family. Normally I can brush this stuff off, but not when it makes my daughter sad. How can I comfort her in these situations? Especially if I’m upset about being excluded too?" While some parents urged her to speak to her daughter's school about the issue, others encouraged her to "focus on being the organiser" instead.

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One user said: "Have you spoken to your child’s teacher about how they are doing socially at school? When you invited the whole class to her birthday, did everyone show up? By grade two, I stopped the whole class parties and focused on smaller celebrations of either just a handful of kids or a special experience for myself and child."

Another user added: "I would focus on being the organiser. Invite other kids to do things and cultivate those friendships. I would also look into getting her involved in non-school social opportunities like Girl Scouts (or Guides) or if she prefers mixed genders, Cub Scouts. Sometimes school is a weird pressure cooker environment and kids who could get along just fine in smaller doses irritate one another."

A third user said: "I was in denial for a while when my middle son wasn't invited to parties. After he got his ADHD diagnosis, it made more sense. He was just too much. Of course, all the kids loved him and wanted him there. He was a friendly little guy. The problem was, after a while, everything would devolve into total chaos because he had trouble with limits and boundaries.

"I'm not saying that your daughter has ADHD or anything related to that. I'm just suggesting that maybe there's a reason that the other parents just do not know how to bring up with you. My denial made it harder for even family members to broach the subject of the chaos he brought to their homes."

Paige Freshwater

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