A mother has been praised by people online for leaving one child out of her daughter's class off the invite list for her seventh birthday party.
Birthday parties are without doubt the highlights of any schoolchild's calendar, and nothing parallels the excitement of being handed an invitation to a classmate's party.
Conversely, there is also nothing quite as crushing as thinking you're going to get that invite only to find you haven't made the cut - which is what happened to one classmate of this particular little girl.
Her mother took to Reddit's famous 'Am I The A**hole' forum to reveal exactly why she chose to leave just one girl from the class out, and it's safe to say most other users were on her side.
The anonymous mom shared: "My (28 female) and husband (29 male) have a daughter Payton (7 female). Payton goes to a small school with 20 kids in her grade. Her birthday party is next month and we sent out invitations to her friends at school. We invited the whole class except one student."
Explaining why she deliberately left her out, she continued: "The student we did not invite has bullied Payton several times (we’ve had meetings with the school and parents). Obviously Payton doesn’t want this kid at her party."
She revealed examples of the bullying included Payton coming home crying because the girl had said she "wasn't pretty, too chubby, etc" and told her she couldn't possibly be a cheerleader as she was not "pretty", and ruined games that Payton participated in with other children.
Despite being nasty to Payton, the little girl was pretty upset about being the only one not invited, as the mom added: "The other girls mother called me to talk about it saying how now her daughter is crying she was the only kid not invited and everyone at school is talking about the party. (Payton’s parties are known by her classmates to be very over the top).
"I explained her daughter isn’t nice to my daughter and that’s the reason she wasn’t invited (the mother knows this). The mother said I’m teaching my child to be a 'bully' and use her wealth to make friends. I disagreed."
She then revealed that the girl's mother asked if she would reconsider if her daughter wrote Payton an apology letter, but confirmed that she would not be changing her mind and inviting her regardless, which has led to it being a "big deal" every time she sees the girl's mother.
The mom also clarified that the invitations were not handed out to the children in the classroom and that she had handed them to the parents so as not to make the girl feel left out or embarrassed.
She also shared a further update after Payton's party to reveal that she had a great time, but said that the girl that wasn't invited did try to show up but couldn't make it past the guard post of the gated community their home is in.
Users took to the comments to reassure the mother that she wasn't the 'a**hole' in the situation, writing: "[Not the a**hole] You are teaching your daughter that putting limits on people who hurt you is okay, even if she is 7 years old."
Another added: "NTA. Her kid has bullied yours so of course Payton doesn’t want her there. This is a great time for the bullies mom to teach them that actions have consequences."
A third commented: "NTA. You aren’t teaching your child to be a bully, only to not socialize with bullies. Lol. Forced apologies aren’t useful to any situation. The other mother needs to move on somewhere. Perhaps take the time to teach her daughter that actions have consequences and no one wants the company of a bully."
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