Mom Says Daughter Left Party Early After Feeling Excluded. Now She’s Debating Confronting the Birthday Girl’s Mom

Mar. 15, 2025

Stock image of a sad little girl.Photo:Getty

Getty

In apostto Reddit’s “Am I the A——?,” the 43-year-old mom said that on the day of the bash, she and her 9-year-old daughter Annie arrived about five minutes late, as did another classmate named Betty.

The bowling alley was busy, so it took the girls a while to get their shoes and their bowling balls before they could join the rest of the group, which consisted of about 17 other girls, the mother wrote.

“The hostess had reserved 3 lanes next to each other. As typical with bowling alleys, there was 2 curved benches for seating for 4 lanes,” the mom added.

By the time they arrived, the mom said that all of the other guests were already using the first two lanes, but that her daughter was told to go to the third lane.

After finding the right ball for her daughter to use, the mom said that she overheard another parent say that Betty was going to be bowling in the second lane. Right away, the mom said she asked the birthday girl’s mom if her daughter could bowl with the other guests, but was told “Annie is in Lane 3.”

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Although the mom said that she asked her daughter if she wanted to join her friends, her daughter just replied that “she was on Lane 3” and stayed put.

“I let her be and went back to talk to some of the parents but 5 min later realized she was still sitting alone on the bench,” the mom continued. “I walked over and asked her again why she didn’t join the other classmates and she said that she felt left out.”

After asking what her daughter wanted to do, the mom said Annie wanted to go.

“I’m really upset how the hostess thought it was ok to isolate Annie and am glad I didn’t just drop her off and leave,” the mom wrote. “[Would it be wrong] if I sent the hostess an email explaining why we left early and how the setup was exclusionary, and that it was improper to have my daughter bowl with an adult male stranger instead of her classmates?”

It it doesn’t help now to send an angry e-mail. It will only backfire," one commenter wrote.

Others pointed out that while the hostess should have done better, with so many kids at the bowling party, she may have been overwhelmed.

“To give the hostess benefit of the doubt, the party was just getting started and it’s possible that if you had left, another adult would have realized Annie was isolated over there and corrected it, and I’m sure the stranger was a family member,” added another commenter. “Still. That sucked for Annie.”

source: people.com