His Daughter Invited One Friend To The Water Park, But When She Didn’t Respond, She Invited Someone Else, And Now The First Friend’s Mom Is Upset
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Making plans can be difficult, and it is a skill that kids should learn, as it will help them throughout their lives.
What would you do if your daughter wanted to invite a friend to come with her to a water park, and the first two friends didn’t reply in a reasonable amount of time, so she invited a third who accepted immediately? Then, the second friend came back later and accepted, but now there wasn’t room for her?
That is what happened to the dad in this story, and while the 2nd friend understood completely that it didn’t work out, her mother got upset and complained that they should have waited for a reply.
To me, that mother seems entitled and unreasonable. The dad and daughter handled the situation well. Read through the full story and see if you agree.
AITA for telling my 12-year-old daughter she did nothing wrong by inviting another friend when the first friend didn’t respond?
Yesterday, I told my 12-year-old daughter I’d be happy to take her and a friend to a water park today.
Making plans can be difficult, even in the age of instant communication.
She had a free “bring a friend” pass, and she initially invited her friend A. Around 9 p.m., A told my daughter she couldn’t go after all. I told my daughter that if she wanted to invite someone else, that was fine.
My daughter texted friend B to see if she wanted to go. When B didn’t respond after about 10 minutes, my daughter tried calling her. Still no response.
No big deal; these things happen.
About 20 minutes after the original text, she invited friend C instead. C immediately said yes, so the plans were set.
At about 10:30 p.m., B finally responded saying she wanted to go. My daughter told her she was sorry, but someone else had already taken the spot. B replied, “OK, no problem,” and my daughter said she was sorry and that she hoped they could hang out soon.
Was there some type of miscommunication?
They also spoke by phone and my daughter explained that the spot was already taken.
This morning, B’s mother called asking when she could drop B off for the water park and saying how excited B was. We explained that another friend was now going.
B’s mother became upset with my daughter and with us.
These things happen; it is no big deal.
She said that once my daughter invited B, she should have waited for B to respond before inviting anyone else. We explained that this was a last-minute plan for the following morning, and my daughter had tried texting and calling B before moving on to another friend.
I also apologized for any miscommunication and said it was probably partly my fault because I had encouraged my daughter to get her plans settled before going to bed.
She is really making a big deal out of this.
B’s mother still feels that my daughter, and my wife and I, were rude and thoughtless. I showed her the texts from the night before, including B acknowledging that the spot had been taken and replying, “OK, no problem,” but she still believes we should have waited indefinitely for B to respond.
I disagree. My view is that with a last-minute invitation like this, you can ask someone, give them a reasonable opportunity to respond, and then move on if you don’t hear back.
There was nothing else he could do.
If I had an extra ticket to a baseball game the next morning, for example, I’d do the same thing.
For what it’s worth, I couldn’t simply take both girls. I only had one extra seat in the car because I was also dropping my son and another child off at camp that morning. If I’d had room, I would happily have taken both and paid for the extra ticket.
AITA?
He did nothing wrong, and actually seemed to put a lot of thought into the situation to ensure his daughter planned things out well. The other mother is incorrect.
Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it.
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Sure, they could have done this.
This might have been a better option.
It really isn’t a complicated situation.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a neighbor who documented times of noise spikes and turned their neighbor into a model tenant.
Here is someone who says 20 minutes isn’t long enough to wait.
This commenter says they did nothing wrong at all.
Sure, they could have handled it a little better, but they didn’t do anything wrong. Her friend’s mother just seems entitled. Hopefully they can all move past this.
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