When you invite kids over for a birthday party, you have to expect that some of them might misbehave at some point.

What happens if one of the kids acts so poorly that other people leave the party, and he even causes thousands of dollars worth of damage?

If you’re this mom, you get proactive for next year.

Here are all the details!

AITA for not inviting my ex husband/his family to one out of two bday parties I had for my kids?

I have 2 children with my ex husband.

My kids birthdays are literally one day apart.

Great idea.

For birthdays I always have done one party, with two cakes/two different themes to make it more individualized for each child.

Rewind to last year, it’s birthday time.

I invite friends from school, my family, my exs family, work friends of mine, etc.

Important context- I invite my Ex SIL Jane (fake name), and her son Parker (also fake name).

I have never met them in person as she lived multiple states away until she recently moved closer.

Sounds like a fun party!

It was an at home birthday with rented inflatables.

Everyone shows, and it started off great.

Until it wasn’t.

Parker started misbehaving.

I’m not talking misbehaving as a normal 5yo might.

Wow, what are the parents doing?

He was screaming, having tantrums, not playing nicely with any of the other kids, not sharing toys/games I had put out, and hit several other kids in attendance.

He even shoved a toddler down because he wanted to go first on the inflatable slide.

It was so bad just about everyone except family started leaving before we could even cut the cake.

At this point I was at my limit, and kicked both Jane & Parker out.

What!? I would sue!

He had an immense fit, ended up grabbing a knife I had on the table for the cakes, and stabbed one of the inflatables putting a massive gash in it.

Jane did not offer to pay for the damages, nor did she try to apologize.

It was just “oh kids act that way” “you’re being ridiculous”.

My ex nor his family said anything to her, and just said they didn’t want to be involved.

I ended up paying 3k in damages to the inflatable company.

This year I decided to throw two parties.

I am shocked she is still inviting the ex’s family!

One as I usually did, and the other for my ex & his family.

The first party was a week before the one we originally have.

I did the usual inflatables, games, photo booths, etc.

Neither my ex, nor any of his family was invited so it was fair and I wasn’t excluding just Jane and Parker.

Everything was great, and everyone had a wonderful time.

The next week we do the second party.

My family, and my exs family are there.

I had everything else as the other party at this one, excluding inflatables as I was not risking paying another few thousand if Parker’s behavior had not changed within the last year.

Everything goes okay, we did have some outbursts from Parker, but no one was injured this go around so it went a lot more smooth.

What would they be upset about?

It is now a couple weeks later, and I started getting blew up with text messages from my ex/his fam saying how awful I am for throwing two parties, and acting as if they were “too stupid to find out”.

I ignored it at first, but the messages continued so I eventually started a group chat and just explained to each of them that I did what I did due to everything that happened last year.

I’m still getting messages saying I’m being an AH.

AITA?

I wouldn’t have invited the ex’s family to anything again. Ever!

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say.

Exactly, Jane and Parker are never coming near my house again.

Yes, she needs to respect herself more than this.

It would make things easier for everyone.

Yup, separate parties from now on.

I would absolutely exclude this kid.

This kid is a monster and should not be invited back.

It’s obviously the parents fault, but still.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.