You know what sucks? Being disappointed. You know what sucks even more? Watching your child be disappointed. Yes, disappointment is a part of life, it builds resilience, but it’s still really hard to watch our children discover this hard lesson.
US-based mum Dawn recently experienced the heartbreak that is child disappointment at her son’s 6th birthday party. She invited 22 kids to join in the celebrations, held at a local park.
22 kids. Not a single child showed. No calls, no cancellations, no ‘sorry we’re running late’ texts. Just a six-year-old boy, his mum, a table full of cupcakes, and an empty park.
‘He deserves better’
Dawn uploaded a video to TikTok as she watched her son playing alone at the park at his party.
@dawners86heart broken. ##heartbroken ##sosad ##hurt ##wow ##lonely ##poorguy ##sadboy ##birthday ##happybirthday ##omg ##cry♬ SAD – Instrumental – Nhím Stone
In the video, she explains,
So we’re sitting at the park for JJ’s birthday party. We got everything ready. His party started half an hour ago.
He had literally zero people show up for his birthday. My poor little man.
Sorry the video is shaky, I am so upset for this poor guy. He deserves better. He’s amazing.”
Out of 22 invites… no one came
Okay, so what went wrong? Did people get the wrong day? Did Covid restrictions prevent people from attending? Apparently not. As Dawn explains,” I know it’s a pandemic, but it is a park, and we have reopened in my province.”
After realising that none of the kids were coming, Dawn did what every mum would do. She made some frantic calls to a few of her family friends, asking them to PLEASE GET THEIR BUTTS TO THE PARK STAT. Two sets of parents arrived to get the party started and save the day.
Can we all collectively agree to RSVP?
This isn’t the first time a child has been left disappointed on his birthday and it won’t be the last.
In today’s busy world of Covid restrictions and school drop off zones, there isn’t a lot of socialising at school for the parents, meaning often we don’t get to know our kids’ friends as well as we used to.
However, a simple RSVP makes the world of difference. At the end of the day, it’s the child who suffers and is left disappointed on their big day. And no child deserves this.
