Dad's Decision To Exclude Bully From Daughter's Party Divides Opinion

A dad has divided the internet over his decision to exclude a bully from his daughter's birthday party.

His girl turned seven this week and is due to celebrate with a back garden bash at the weekend - but one kid ain't invited.

The kid in question is apparently a bit of a menace and recently made the dad's daughter cry, prompting her not to invite him to her party. Keen to ensure she enjoyed her day, the dad didn't invite the bully - but then the bully's mum gave him a b********g at the school gates.

Now he doesn't know whether he made the right decision, so he decided to open it up to the floor on Reddit, in the 'Am I The A*****e?' subreddit.

He explained: "His mom 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.

Pexels/Vlad Karpovich

"I told her, lady he had months to do that (or her to teach him to), this is their last week of school. Bit too late to be trying to make friends now with how he was treating all the kids especially my daughter.

"She just kept saying I should be ashamed of myself for not taking this opportunity 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. 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. I did the right thing or wrong?"

Well, it turned out that his parental judgement didn't have unanimous backing.

Questioning his decision, one Reddit user said: "You have a right to invite who you want to your home but you also created a situation where everyone became aware of it at school, and despite his behaviour I think it's good to respect the division.

"I'm not saying this right, but he's got a right to be at school but not at your home. By the same token, the party that's happening at your home shouldn't be part of his school experience."

Another agreed: "You're 100 percent allowed to exclude one student, but you should not be publicly handing out invites if you're doing so. These are young children who will absolutely feel excluded."

Pexels/Anna Shvets

However, others felt he made the right call.

One person said: "NTA [not the a*****e]. The only 'lesson' that needs to be learned here is that treating people badly will get you excluded from things."

Another agreed: "The daughter learned that her dad has her back. Respects her wishes, and stands up in her place against bullies and the people that enable the bullies.

"Valuable lesson for her - and this bully learns the hard way that being a jerk has consequences."

Absolute minefield parenting, isn't it?

Topics: Interesting, Community, Reddit

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey