Fury Over 'Best Friend' Not Inviting Woman's Son to Birthday Party

A mom has reacted with anger after her son wasn't invited to a birthday party hosted by his "best friend."

She's not alone in expressing anger at the situation either after taking the matter to social media, where her post drew a similarly furious response.

Exclusion and rejection from a young age can have a significant impact on a child's outcome, with a 2001 study published in Developmental Psychology finding those experiences can be detrimental to emotional and behavioral health as well as academic achievement.

It's therefore entirely understandable that a parent may wish to intercede to try and remedy the situation or restore their child's sense of self worth. That appears to be the intentions of the concerned mom who took to Mumsnet to detail how her son was recently snubbed by someone he considered one of his best friends.

Writing under the handle MumofRon, she explained that she had been left "furious" after her son's "best friend" Ben did not invite him to his party. Worse still, he did exactly the same thing last year. Despite the repeated snub, her son still wants to invite Ben to his upcoming birthday.

His mom, however, has other ideas that include paying "ridiculous amounts" to invite everyone but Ben to a lavish party. She explained she wanted Ben's mom to feel as bad as she does "right now" but also does not want to upset her son any further.

Turning to Mumsnet for advice, many users urged her to scrap those plans and simply confront the matter head on.

"Ask Ben's Mum directly why," TwiggletLover said. "Tell her how devastated your son has been and see what she says." ElfandSafetyBored agreed, commenting: "Ask her why your son isn't invited as it has really upset him, he thinks they are great friends. See what she says."

Others like Playdoh4, felt it was better left alone. "It's hurtful for you and your son and it's tempting to retaliate, but it won't achieve anything," they said. "The mum won't care. It's better to take the higher ground."

Musti, meanwhile, wrote: "Invite who your child wants to invite, and let other parents invite who their kids want to invite. And don't take it personally, it's normal."

Madeleine Woolgar, a parent coach, child behavior expert and speaker, told Newsweek she works with a lot of families with children in this position and acknowledges "it can be really challenging for the parent too because you feel like your child is being rejected."

"I totally understand that you might have an instinct to confront the host's parents and try and smooth the whole thing over, but the truth is that in life we are not always going to be included by everyone," she said.

"I think this could be a really great opportunity to start to equip your child with what to do if someone doesn't include you. Because they're going to face that at some point – whether it's in the playground someone doesn't include them in the game or if it's at university and there's a party that they're not included in. This is about building resilience in your child."

Woolgar said it's also important to allow children to work through their feelings in situations like this. "It's really important to show your child that this other child's behavior doesn't mean anything about them."