Abby Connolly
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.”
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