I am the uncle to an amazing 7-year-old boy. I personally am young myself. (22) Today I was faced with a very very emotional time. Even though it didn’t involve me, it affected me as if it did. Yesterday, my nephew turned the big 7. Although his birthday party was not until today, I decided to take the trip out to his house to hang out with him. My sister and my nephew live about a hour and a half away, so I do not get to see them very often with my busy schedule. My nephew could not stop talking about how excited he was for his birthday party, which located at a bowling alley/arcade place. He wasn’t excited for presents, he wasn’t excited to bowl or play games, but he was very excited to see all his friends. He lives in what we call the “sticks”. An area where it takes 10-15 minutes to get to the nearest gas stations. The “country” most would call it. Because of the distance between him and his friends, he doesn’t get to see some of them for weeks besides the ones he goes to school with. My nephew had a hard few first years in a school. He had a hard time making friends because of his ADHD. About 8 months ago, my sister took him in to a doctor and he was diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, social anxiety, and depression. He was put on medication and started turning into a great, energetic, friendly young boy. He was able to make tons of friends at school and in soccer, tball, and all sorts of other activities, but like I said before, he doesn’t get to hang out and play with those friends as much as he would like. Like I said before, he was ecstatic about seeing all his friends and playing with them. My sister was as far as finding a mutual location from all his friends so they could easily attend. According to her “list”. 8 kids from school were invited, 6 children of friends, and all of our family. The party was due to start at 2pm and would go for three hours. 2 for bowling and another hour for unlimited arcade games. We arrived about 140 to set up. My nephew was sweating of excitement and asked if we could go sit by the door so he could watch his friends come in. a half hour went by and no one besides his other uncle, his grandma and grandpa on his dads side, (he has 3 grandma and grandpas due grandparents divorce) my mom (2nd grandma), and another uncle arrived. I told him not to worry, no ones on time these days anyways. I talked him into starting a game of bowling. He didn’t want to without his friends, but he did anyways. We started playing and after every roll, he quickly turned around and looked up at the door to see if any of his friends or other family have arrived yet and no one did. This kept going on until 3. Then it really started to hit me emotionally. You could see the disappointment in his eyes and body language every time he looked back to see his friends. He didn’t want to bowl anymore, he didn’t want to play games, all he wanted was for someone, anyone to walk into that door. I have never seen a young boy so confused and upset like he was. It got even harder for myself and im sure him as well when a few boys his age walked in the door. He jumped up to see if it was his friends, and he quickly realized that he didn’t know any of them. He looked over at my sister and asked if they were here for his party and she looked down and let him know that she doesn’t think they are here for his party. His head dropped and he sat back down. The group of young boys were on the lanes next to us. All 12 young boys having a good time, laughing, playing and smiling. He looked over at their group every couple seconds wishing is friends would come. I told him that if he could beat me in a game of bowling that I would take him to go see monster trucks when they are in town, which he loves. He accepted my challenge and I felt a little energy come out of him. We began playing. Then around 3:30, a coworker of my sisters walked in the door with her boy just a year younger then my nephew. He never met him before, but he didn’t care. He now had someone to play with. They could only bowl for a little bit because we were finished at 4. Luckily we got free arcade for a hour afterwards so we sat down, ate some cake and went to the arcade. The young boy that he had never met before instantly became his best friend. I sat down with my emotional sister and asked if anyone out of the 20+ people she invited said they weren’t coming, she said no. Over 13 said they were coming, the others were unknown. My sister worked overtime for weeks, saving as much as she could so that his friends could come and play bowling and games for free and eat. And for no one to show, it was completely wasted. He opened 2 presents. One from myself and one from his grandparents. It was very hard to watch and try to explain why no one came. Walking back to the car, I looked at him and said “did you enjoy your birthday party?” he looked at me and said, “I don’t think anyone likes me, no one came to say happy birthday”. I have never felt so terrible and emotional in my 22 years of life. Now, im not a parents, but I would think that if you and your child are invited to a birthday party, wouldn’t you let them know if your coming or not. And if you say yes, actually show up?! I understand money might be tight or you have to work and that’s not a problem, we can reschedule, but wouldn’t you let the host know so she doesn’t waste hundreds of dollars for no one to show up? Let me know what your thoughts are. Thank you. p.s. sorry for the long story; I had to vent a little. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2f8Qc6W
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