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A mother has shared a heartbreaking story in response to claims that when it comes to young children’s birthday parities, the whole class should be invited.
Sharing her story on Mumsnet, an online parenting forum, the mother explained her decision to intentionally leave one of her daughter’s classmates off the invite list.
‘Those of you who say never exclude any child from a class party. Not even if they are the bully – you’re wrong, in my opinion and based on my experience,’ she wrote.
The mother goes on to share that her daughter has been severely bullied: ‘It started in nursery. With hitting, spitting, shoving and not letting anyone speak to my child. By primary it had moved to excluding my child and pushing them off seats in the dinner hall. Then it moved to attack with a rope.’
Despite the mother moving her daughter to another school, the children were reunited in secondary school when the two schools merged.
The attacks then escalated with the mother sharing her child had her ‘face smashed into the pavement’ and was also filmed changing clothes before a PE class.
The police became involved and the bully was prosecuted and expelled.
After watching her daughter suffer through those years of torment, the mother said there was ‘no way’ she would invite every member of a class just to please everybody.
‘To hear people on here say all kids should be included to a party is just wrong,’ she said. ‘How would it make my child feel to have their bully in my house at a party? It would seriously have damaged my child immensely and I would have been letting down my child not to support them… How could I have looked my child in the face having that other child there?’
Despite the heartbreaking tale, some commenters believe that no child should ever be left out, even if they are the bully.
This article originally appeared on New Idea.
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