Organising a birthday party for a child can be a stressful event, but while you obviously want to make your child's day special, some parents take things to the extreme.
And no, we're not talking about My Super Sweet Sixteenth with budgets of tens of thousands for a sixteenth birthday party.
This is slightly earlier birthday.
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Taking to Reddit to vent about the bizarre turn of events, a mum of one of the attendees of the birthday party explained how the parents of the child had arranged for a few stops on party, including lunch and then going back to their house.
But the main event of the day was going to be held at a Build-A-Bear. For those who don't know, as the name suggests you can build your own teddy bear which you then get to take home.
Brilliant!
But things did not turn how how they seemed.
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The mum wrote: "The party was being held at Build a Bear, but it wasn’t run by the employees. We had cake and pizza in the food court, then went down to BAB to make bears, then back to friends house for the rest of the party."
So far so good.
They continued: "The invitation said each kid (about 8 total) would get to make a Bear, and I just assumed they would get to take them home, since that is what happened at another BAB party I went to.
"Me and my husband even pitched in about 30 dollars as we know these things can get expensive."
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But it was at the end of the party that things really took a turn for the worse. As the parent said, you would assume that everyone would be able to keep their bear at the end as a nice memento of a fun day out.
Instead, they had to hand over their bears like they were paying tribute to a feudal lord.
The parent explained: "Friend's mom announces that the kids need to give all their animals to her daughter. Cue the upset and angry kids.
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"They all disappointingly handed over their animals, and friend wasn’t even being nice about it either. Another little boy didn't want to, and friend ripped it out of his hands."
Not only that, but the other children had to watch as the birthday girl played with the bears by herself.
When asked about it after the party, the mum explained that she'd wanted her daughter to have a bear created by each of her friends.
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Needless to say the mum wasn't impressed, replying: "The kids were forced to give away their new creations, obviously they are going to be upset about it."
But it seems the mum wasn't bothered, being described as 'waltzing off'.
There might be a whole sloth of bears (yes that's the collective noun for them), but it seems unlikely there'll be an abundance of party invitations any time soon!
Naturally, people took to Reddit to express their shock, with one writing: "That is really weird!! I can't believe the parents made all the kids give away their bears."
And another said: "This is disturbing. It sounds like something the Dursleys would do to Harry Potter."
Kit Roberts