Mom Bans Son’s Friend From Sleepover After His Mom Was 5 Hours Late for Pickup Last Time

iStock

Having playdates, parties, and sleepovers for our kids is most often a good time. Sure, there are stressful moments – and loud ones – but they build memories our kids can take with them throughout life. It’s fun for us to see our kids hanging with their friends, but to be candid, it’s not always easy to get along with their parents.

One mom is dealing with this issue. She has no problem with her son’s friend, but his mom has caused issues several times and she's had enough. The frustrated mom (OP) took to Reddit to get advice after an issue popped up between them.

Posting to Reddit’s AITA community, OP shared some details on her son, his friend, and why his friend’s mom is upset.

“My son just turned 10, and for his birthday wanted to do a superhero slumber party,” OP began her Reddit post. “We did something similar the last two years (not for his 9th birthday for obvious reasons), and they all had a blast. The party started around 3:00, we did pizza, movies, popcorn and designed superhero masks.

“My son is/was friends with a boy named James from his class,” she continued. “He came to the last two sleepover parties, and while well behaved, it was his parents who I felt were the problem,” she admitted.

James' parent is never on time for pickup. “When we send out the invites, we tell the parents when the party is and what time to pick the kids up the next day,” she explained. “For the last two parties, James was always the last one to be picked up.”

Two years ago, for her son’s last party, James’ mom was late – like really late.

“For his 8th birthday, we specifically stated that all kiddos should be picked up by 11:00 AM,” OP wrote. “We had plans to go to my in laws for his birthday party, which was on his actual birthday. We had five boys (including our son) at the party, and three of them were picked up by 11:00 AM.”

Thirty minutes later, James’ mom still hadn’t picked him up. She texted to find out where she was and told OP that she “was on her way.”

“I assumed she ran an errand and was just running behind, no big deal,” she added. “By 12:30, she hadn't shown up, I texted her again and I reminded her that we had somewhere to be and she needed to get here as soon as possible.”

At that time, the mom replied again saying that “she was eating lunch and would be there soon. By 2:00PM I texted her again and let her know that she needs to pick up her son ASAP, that we were getting ready to leave in an hour and her son was not invited to come with us.”

OP was hoping that would inspire James' mom to get him because they'd had him long enough.

Now, five hours later, they were late to their afternoon plans.

“By 4:00PM my husband left with our kids to my in laws,” OP shared. She called James’ mom again, this time leaving a voicemail message.

“I left her a voicemail and told her that if she was not at my house in thirty minutes to pick up her son, I was calling the police to inform them that he was an abandoned child," she wrote, which ended up working.

“She showed up within fifteen minutes to get him,” OP explained to Reddit. “She made a half-assed apology about how she was busy with errands and running her other children to their activities.”

The last party guest was finally gone, and OP was hopeful that would be the end of it all, but it wasn’t.

OP recently received a text message from the mom.

“Today I received a text message from her about why James was not invited to the sleepover party,” she wrote. “Apparently one of the other moms was talking about how much fun the kids had at the party, and she wanted to know why her son was not invited.”

OP didn’t want to lie, so she didn’t. “I told her the truth, that her son was not invited because I was not sure if she would come get him in a timely manner and without disrupting our plans for the rest of the day,” she explained.

OP reminded the mom that whenever her son’s been over, she’s been late taking him home. “I explained that any time her son is at my house, she is always late to pick him up and I was tired of catering to her schedule.”

That didn’t land well with the other mom. “She called me an uppity b—-, and has since blocked me on social media and her phone.” Now, the mom is worried that she’s in the wrong for telling the truth about why James wasn’t invited.

She turned it over to Reddit for input.

“This mom sucks (to put it mildly),” one person replied. “And I feel sorry for her kid. She was using you for free daycare and doesn’t care enough about her kid. It’s weird how she was able to pick up her kid in 15 minutes once the threats got real.”

“It sucks that her kid has to pay the price,” another person commented. “But picking up your kid 5 hours after the agreed upon time is bulls—. She was 100% using you as a babysitter and was enjoying her day minus James.”

“If it was known they were suppose to get picked up at 11 and she showed up at 4, that’s 5hrs,” pointed out someone else. “That’s not a ‘I was running late doing errands.’ That’s an ‘I wanted a free babysitter.’”

“Should have dropped the kid off at the police station,” someone else shared. “I would feel bad about the kid being there. But let him know it’s his mom who didn’t come get him.”

Five hours late is way excessive and not a “running late” excuse. Also, that would probably be stressful for the kid, wondering where his mom is. It’s also awkward for the parents who aren’t sure what to do. Hopefully the other mom learns from this.