Nowadays, if an adult was to be excluded from a party invitation, they'd probably appreciate the chilled evening at home in peace. However, it can be pretty traumatising for children in school.
Taking to popular forum Reddit, a mum admitted her devastation as her eight-year-old son came home in tears after he was the only class member to not receive an invite to a child's birthday party. Captioning the post, the mum wrote: "Third grader excluded from birthday party when the rest of the class was invited."
She explained: "My eight-year-old son came home crying yesterday because another student M handed out birthday party invitations to all of his classmates except for him."
The woman went on: "It happened in his classroom and there are 18 students in his class. When my son asked M why he didn't get an invitation, M apparently replied with a big smirk 'I guess you didn't make the list'.
"My son and M get along fine when they are together by themselves but apparently M can be a bit mean to my son when M is with his other friends. I have no issue with M not inviting my son - it's his party and he can invite whoever he wants.
"But it seems unnecessarily cruel for M to deliberately exclude my son, and only my son, in front of his classmates at school. My son already has difficulty fitting in and finding friends to sit and play with at lunch and recess.
"My son is bright and kind - though a little off-beat with his love for horses, steam engines, and old musical recordings. I worry it will get even more difficult for him now that M has signalled to the other classmates that my son is to be rejected and excluded at school.
"I don't want to make this an even bigger deal for my son but I am inclined to talk to his teacher and the school principal to ask them to clarify their policy on handing out party invitations. A part of me wants to name and shame M's parents through the class chat group but that would probably just hurt my son more in the end."
"It just hurts my heart to think about M and some of the other kids rubbing this party in my son's face every day at school for the next few weeks and him feeling rejected and left out," she added.
Since sharing her concerns, the woman's post has raked in over 500 comments to date.
Flocking to the comment section, one Reddit user admitted: "Man if I found out my little s*** kid excluded someone I'd cancel his whole damn party."
Meanwhile, a second suggested: "It's possible that the parents did, in fact, make invitations for every child in the class - and their son just decided to not give your son his. So might be best to ask some questions before accusing the parents."
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