She Told A Child With Special Needs At Her Son’s Birthday Party That She Couldn’t Help Him Use The Bathroom
If you’re a parent, you know just how exhausting it can be to host a birthday party for your little one. Parents often allow their children to run rampant around your home, and it usually feels like you’re playing ‘maid’ instead of enjoying your kid’s special day.
One mom was recently flustered at her young son’s birthday party, where a child with special needs was left without his parents to help him, thanks to her mother-in-law.
She has a young son who is in elementary school and recently celebrated his birthday. She invited all his school friends to her son’s birthday party at her house, including one boy named Elliot, who has special needs.
While Elliot is a very sweet boy, he needs a lot of extra help with activities, and he also needs his parents to take him to the bathroom. So, she figured Elliot’s parents, who she’s good friends with, would stick around during the birthday party.
When her son’s friends started to arrive, half of them were dropped off, and the other half had their parents eventually leave during the party. Her husband and mother-in-law were there, but because most of the kids only knew her, they mostly went to her for help.
Because she has experience with kids as a nurse, she figured she could handle the kids on her own for most of the day, but then things changed when Elliot approached her and told her he needed to use the bathroom.
Knowing it takes around 20 minutes to help Elliot in the bathroom, she told him she was sorry she couldn’t help him and he needed to find his parents. Then, she was shocked when he told her his parents weren’t there.
“Que my mother-in-law walking up,” she recalled.
“She said, ‘I told them you had a handle on it, and they should take a few hours to go and have fun, so they left. I’ll watch the kids; you do what you need to do,’ and she handed me [Elliot’s] bag [which was] full of bathroom stuff. I was furious with rage and embarrassment and pity for this child.”
cherryandbees – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual children
She was so upset but tried to stay calm for Elliot. She felt that if she were left responsible for him for the rest of the party, she wouldn’t be able to enjoy it.
While she was slightly annoyed at Elliot’s parents for not letting her know they were leaving, she was mostly angry with her mother-in-law for assuming she’d be willing to take on those extra responsibilities on top of all the work she was already doing.
She told Elliot she was so sorry but wouldn’t be able to help him, then took her mother-in-law to the side.
She told her mother-in-law that she’d have to help Elliot herself or call his parents and ask them to return to the party.
“My mother-in-law was beyond shocked and furious,” she said.
“She [was] eventually able to get a hold of [Elliot’s] parents with my husband’s help, but she has been very short with me since. She told my husband that since I was basically a nurse, I shouldn’t have a problem doing that for Elliot.”
Thankfully, her husband has been on her side, disagreeing with his mom. Since the party, she can’t help but feel slightly guilty for not wanting to help Elliot, even though that’s not her job.
Should she feel bad, or did she do the right thing?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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