She Offended Her Child-Free Friend By Not Inviting Her To Her Twins’ Birthday Party

This 34-year-old woman has twins who recently celebrated their 5th birthday. They began school last fall, and she made the choice to put them in different classes in an effort to foster their independence.
For their birthday, she invited all the kids in both of their classes. Their school always invited everyone in a class to birthday parties, so she wanted to do the same thing.
Additionally, some of the parents she knows are generous enough to invite both of her twins to birthday parties so the other won’t feel left out. All in, she invited a little less than 50 kids.
“The twins are now at an age where they will remember their birthday, so I wanted the guest list to reflect who they would want, although previously, I have invited my friends and their kids to the twins’ birthdays, including child-free friends as honorary aunties and uncles,” she explained.
“Planning their 5th party was a bigger effort than I thought, and although I originally planned to do it myself at home, I rented a soft play center my kids love.”
“I also invited a few family friends who had kids around my twins’ age, but not the child-free friends as it was a soft play center, and I didn’t think it would be fun for them, and I was being charged per person turning up so wanted to cut costs as they wouldn’t be using the soft play area.”
Her friend Lily is child-free, and Lily called her up to say she heard the twins were having a party from a mutual friend of theirs.
Lily felt hurt that she was excluded from the guest list, but she informed Lily the party was happening at a place for children.
She added that the twins are old enough to have their own group of friends now, and she didn’t want her kids to feel like she was throwing a party for herself instead of them.

velirina – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
The majority of her child-free friends understood why they were not invited, and Lily was not exactly her only friend who got offended: a few more wished they were able to attend.
“My husband thinks we should throw a family party and invite the child-free friends to compromise, but to me, it seems like an apology when I don’t really think we’ve done anything wrong by not including Lily and other child-free friends,” she continued.
“I will apologize if I am in the wrong, but I don’t really know how to navigate this as I and my husband are one of the first in our friend groups to have kids, and I guess it was slightly unexpected for them not to be invited as they have been included on every other birthday of the twins and their big milestones.”
What do you think?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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