I hoped I didn’t have to reiterate this, but alas: If you have a child in elementary school and invite most of their class to a party, it really is good manners to invite the entire class. Or at least, not invite everybody but one kid. But apparently everyone needs another etiquette lesson, so here we go.
Jennifer Kiss-Engele from Langley, a suburb of Vancouver, BC, took to Facebook to berate the parent of one of her son’s classmates. Apparently, they threw a birthday party for their child and invited everyone in the class, except Kiss-Engele’s son, Sawyer.
“I know it’s not because he’s mean, you couldn’t meet a happier child. I know it’s not because he’s not fun, he has a great sense of humour and an infectious laugh. I know it’s not because your child and him don’t get along, he’s brought up your child’s name on several occasions,” she wrote. “The only reason why you decided it was OK to not invite my son to your child’s birthday party is because he has Down Syndrome.”
Kiss-Engele’s post received comments from other parents of children with special needs who had been treated similarly. The Daily Dot has reached out to Kiss-Engele about whether or not the classmate’s parents have responded, but hasn’t heard back as of this posting.
Kiss-Engele notes that Sawyer hasn’t been invited to a lot of birthday parties this year, because “the kids are getting to that age where they often only invite a few children to their parties and he hasn’t made the cut.” That could be a factor of kids being taught prejudice against people with Down Syndrome, or just that kids start choosing their social circles as they get older.
But when you’re still the age that your parents have to organize your birthday party, and they decide to invite the whole class, they better actually invite the whole class.
Look, internet, I don’t want to have to search stock images for “sad child party” one more time. Please learn some manners.
H/T Global News