BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Birthday party snub sparks debate
An eight-year-old boy has sparked an unlikely outcry in Sweden after failing to invite two of his classmates to his birthday party.
The boy's school says he has violated the children's rights and has complained to the Swedish Parliament.
This is outragous. How can you be forced to invite everyone in the class to a party, surely it's up to the individual to decide who they invite to their house or who they spend money on for a party.
Also, these days kids parties are at least £15 per head. I cant afford to invite 30 children...!
Not to mention the naughty kids who spoil if for everyone else. I don't care if they have their feelings hurt...they should behave themselves and they might get invited & my kids shouldn't have to invite children they don't like.
Sweded eh? How long before Britain implement a similar rule.
in the class, not just on the premises. Although I don't know why the teacher didn't just take him aside and, assuming the lack of invite caused ridicule, tell him that he should have handed them out in the playground and had some consideration. (although why we expect children to handle adult concepts that adults cant handle well, I dont know )
solution: sack the teacher and call the class teddy muhammed.
Yes, and I can see that to hand the invites out to the class of children whilst they were all there would be wrong and unfair to the two chidren not invited. It is rather excessive to take it to the Swedish Paliament! (They will all want invites too now ) Surely the sensible thing to do would have been to let the boy, or his parents, have the invites back to give out later, on the playground at home time, for instance.
So what do you want
A bunch of 8yr olds and a teacher
Ok children ive got some great news , Helga has invited ALL of you to her party.
All of you stand up now and come and get your invitations
ps no not your 'stewart8' and 'halfthetroublethen' your not invited so stay seated
I think the fact it was done in school and in class is very relevant
We are talking about 8yr olds
Its not nice being 8th choice for goal keeper back then but to have that happen to you, the shame of it
you're missing the point though - it may be slightly insulting but we're talking about REPORTING IT TO THE GOVERNMENT ...which is kind of like farting in your snow suit in the alps and being fined by the EU for emission contributions to global warming.
The devil's in the detail Stew.
I know what you mean, but it's common sense. At my kids school the children are not allowed to hand out invitations in school time, they have to do it in the playground before school or get the parents to organise it.
If I was forced to invite everyone, my kids would have to go wothout a party all together, as it would be too expensive & I'd begrudge spending money on the bullies and trouble makers. That's not right is it?
No, as I said in my first post, the school was over reacting and extreme in it's complaint. But I feel it could have been avoided in the first place, by either letting the invites be handed out on the playground after school, out of school or even in the classroom, but less obviously.
We spend so much time trying to not have children feel 'different' to others and integrating everyone so they feel equal, this sort of situation is likely to make the uninvited children feel unworthy, embarrassed and disliked.
Agree!
It's of course completely OTT to take something like this to parliament, but I do think schools should have a rule about not letting kids give out birthday invitations etc in school time/during class. An 8 year old will feel extremely humiliated by being excluded in this way, and believe me, the kid who gave out the invites probably did this on purpose!
I was bullied all the way through school, and was on the receiving end of this kind of treatment all the time. I lost count on the times that ALL the other kids in my class had a birthday invitation on their desk - apart from me. The teachers simply didn't give a toss, and neither did the parents of the kids who were giving out the invites - despite being fully aware of what they were doing. Hurtful and humiliating? You bet. Take the case to parliament? Don't be so bloody stupid!
My mum had a great way of dealing with this. Harsh, but effective: She'd make me take a card and/or present to the kid who had the birthday party (if I was the only one not invited), and hand it over to the parent of the kid. This was hugely embarrasing for both the parent and the kid itself. Then mum would throw a little mini-party for me at home or do something special with me, to make me feel better. Didn't make it hurt any less about being excluded, though.
I didnt have this problem when I was younger, as I didnt escape from the Lab until I was 16.
DTS XXX XX
Well, yes, it does seem like there has to be rules about everything - as etiquette and common sense is rather thin on the ground.
Anyway, we're a society of silly rules and regulations, so why not a rule (or guideline) about this? For heaven's sake, they've banned conkers in a lot of schools...
my thoughts....
1. A lot of parents dont give a monkeys about nobody these days it appears. If a child upsets their child at school for whatever reason, If a teacher upsets their child, if you so much as say the wrong thing... they will sue the school regardless of the common sense of it and whether its right or wrong.
2. Children of that age do understand who they like and who they do not like. This is freedom of choice but there should be rules about invite hand outs in each school to avoid this happening. This is the schools responsibility to ensure its done.
Again but, with regards point 2, you can bet your bottom dollar that if a school was to implement some sort of invite hand out thing, a parent would want to make a scene because they dont agree with the system...
Parents are a fool to themselves when it comes to this sort of issue. Getting invites is a part of becoming accepted within your school freinds and teaches children that when they are nice they get partys and when they are not they dont. Removing this freedom would be a mistake.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks