A mum has been praised for sparking a mass walk out at a three-year-old's birthday party at an indoor playground. She explained how her daughter was invited to a classmate's birthday bash, expecting the day to involve soft play and sugary snacks.
But it turns out the birthday boy's mum was more interested in staging 'memories' for Instagram rather than actually making them. Soon after walking through the doors, the mum quickly realised the party was being used as a stepping stone for the birthday boy's mum to boost her standing on social media.
Wanting to make sure she had enough content to share on Instagram, she made the children sit through four photoshoots in less than two hours, leaving them with about 30 minutes to play in total. Venting to Reddit, the mum said: "We had to follow the itinerary we didn't realise we had. The kids had two group rides, which always came with a photoshoot before each ride.
"Then they were free to play for just another five to 10 minutes before they had to go for another photoshoot with the cake.
"Then the parents had to take photos.
"Then we had the cake cutting and another round of photos, before food was served."
Knowing her daughter wasn't hungry enough for food, she attempted to sneak her out the backdoor to avoid her having a "breakdown" in the middle of the party.
"My daughter didn't want to eat and I could see she was losing it," she added.
"Especially, since it was a spread of beautifully decorated desserts that weren't offered to anyone at all, so I wouldn't let her touch them.
"But my daughter leaving triggered her two friends asking to leave, which triggered even more kids demanding to leave. The party ended up getting cut short by 30 minutes.
"I figured I should just leave before I ruin the party since we already had two meltdowns from other children in the last 10 minutes.
"The mum is obviously annoyed with me, and I agree I did ruin the party and I knew if my daughter leaves, there's a chance I'd trigger that snowball effect.
"I believe it's important not to expect society to cater to my child's whims and it's my job as a parent to make sure she behaves, but I think she had been doing an amazing job not running off and doing her own thing.
"I found the entire party stressful and not fun at all, so I figured my kid probably feels the same."
While most people agreed the mum was right to walk out of the party to cater for her child, others shared a thought for the birthday boy whose special day was "ruined" by his mum's Instagram obsession.
One user said: "Probably an Insta mom looking for 'the perfect picture'.
"My three-year-old would have destroyed that party long before that. You left to stop a meltdown.
"Your kid's emotional needs come before an Insta mum's photoshoot"
Another user added: "It drives me so nuts when people are like 'Oh my gosh we are having so much fun! Everybody stop what you are doing so we can fake smiles and take pictures to show everybody how much fun we are having!'
"And then get mad when the kids are hard to pose."
A third commenter said: "These are little kids who are still learning emotional regulation.
"You can't just plop them into an interesting environment with new toys and cake and tons of desserts, and expect them to follow a rigid schedule they've never been exposed to before.
"Just get a video camera if memories are so important to you and let the kids be kids."
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