My eight-year-old son was the only one not invited to his classmate’s birthday party

A distraught mum revealed the negative impact being excluded from a birthday party had on her eight-year-old son.

The mum shared that her son came home from school ‘in tears’ after one of his classmates handed out invitations to everyone in his 18-person cohort except for him.

When her son politely asked why he was the only one not invited, the other kid’s answer sent a chill down the mum’s spine.

‘He smirked and told my son he didn’t make the list,’ she revealed. ‘It happened in class in front of everyone – and my child is so upset.’

The mum went to the school about the incident which lead to a new policy that demanded all children be invited to a party if invites are being handed out on school premises. 

The mum shared details of the incident on an online parenting forum and asked for advice about the situation.

‘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,’ she wrote.

The young boy has had issues ‘fitting in’ at school because of his love for horses, steam engines, old musical recordings.

The mum revealed that her son often sits and plays by himself at lunch because he doesn’t have that many friends, and she was worried that being excluded from the party would make his social life worse. 

‘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’.’

The mum shared that her son came home from school ‘in tears’ after one of his classmates handed out invitations to everyone in his 18-person cohort except for him

She shared more information about her son’s relationship with his classmate that shed some light on the cruelty.

‘The boys get along fine when they’re together by themselves, but M can be a bit mean to my son when other kids are around,’ she revealed.

While the mum emphasised that it wasn’t a problem that her son wasn’t invited – she thought it was unnecessarily mean to deliberately exclude her child in front of the whole class.

‘I worry that it will get even more difficult for my son now that M has signaled to the other classmates that my son is to be rejected and excluded.

‘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.’

The mum eventually ended up speaking to a teacher about their invitation policy – and the school assured her they would implement a ‘no invitations at school unless the whole class is invited’ policy.

The mum went to the school about the incident which lead to them implementing a policy that demanded all children be invited to a party if invites are being handed out on school premises

Thousands sympathised with the mum’s situation and shared advice.

‘I would focus my attention on building resilience in your son, and try to teach him that there will always be mean people around, but his job is to cultivate enough self-worth that it won’t impact him so much in the future,’ one person said.

‘This is a teachable moment so that he has empathy for others,’ another said. ‘My kid knows how it feels to be left out and he is often the first one to step in and defend other kids who are getting bullied.’ 

Many advised her not to make it an ‘issue’ with the school.

‘The kid is going to double down on the exclusion because now he knows it’s effective. Also, it will disempower your son if you swoop in and solve this for him,’ a man wrote.

‘Don’t call out the parents – it’s possible that they sent invites for everyone and the kid decided to exclude your son on purpose. It’ll make him even more of a target if you kick up a fuss,’ another said.