Mom Demands Daughter Be Invited to Bully's Birthday Party, Internet Has Theories

The tale, posted to an anonymous forum, garnered thousands of responses as Redditors dived in with theories to explain some rather puzzling behavior that played out over the course of months from a fellow parent.

Read on to see how the whole thing played out ... and the best detective work from the Reddit community.

"I admit my kid can be a jerk at times but I truly believe all middle schoolers can be," OP began. "Earlier this year he got in trouble for calling a girl (Sam) a suck up. According to the school, Sam, and my son this went on for about two week and he got in major trouble for it. He got in trouble at school for a week with after school detention and he got grounded at home and a long conversation."

OP went on to explain they offered to have their son change classes, "So he moved classes and they don’t interact at all. You would think problem solved but no. I kept getting messages from the mother, my son has class 8 hours in another room and the school has told me both kids are not interacting. I have confirmed this with both teachers, they aren’t even in the same lunch period."

"It’s his birthday this weekend and I sent out invites to his friends," OP continued. "I got a call this morning about why her daughter wasn't invited. That she is unsure now and should be invited. That I need to make this right. I had enough and told her my son doesn’t [owe] her kid anything and if she can't handle two weeks of being called a suck up then she needs therapy."

"She called me a jerk and I need an outside opinion," they continued. "I know my son messed up but seriously they haven’t interacted in a few months since this happened at the beginning of the year."

While she was certified NTA (not the a-hole) by the subreddit community -- there were a variety of theories that in their own way become much more interesting than the original post.

Many felt that the post lacked essential details and worried that the "jerk" behavior went much further than OP implied.

While others voiced that OP was not setting a good example with the needing therapy comment, as one branded it a "below the belt" comeback.

However, OP stood by their comment, writing in reply: "She does need therapy if she is having that much of an issue. Needing therapy isn’t an insult some people just need it."

Some Redditors theorized that while both kids were physically separated, bullying, in today's day and age, can extend beyond the four walls of a classroom and into social media.

"There wasn’t cyber bullying," OP said in reply to that hypothesis. "Yes I know, and if there was if I didn’t find out I’m sure the parent would have or the kids would have spoke up. Everyone is very clear what happened. Also while I’m at I was called in on Wednesday so really was a week and a half or 8 days of bullying [total]."

While another asked the most obvious question: "Why the f--k would she expect an invitation, when your son had moved to a different class not to be around her?"

"It was the mother that wanted that, Sam truly just seemed shy and I don’t think she has many friends," OP responded. "I seriously don’t understand why she keeps contacting me."

It was this "shy" observation about Sam that seemed to pull the most heartstrings among the commenters.

One wrote: "I feel so badly for poor Sam. Obviously, you must do what's necessary to protect your son. Period. At the same time however, I feel for this poor girl, who already lacked social connections, internal confidence and the wherewithal to improve her situation. Then here comes her harridan of a mother, lodging complaints, the girl almost certainly never wanted to make. Worse yet, she takes to manufacturing false, nonsense idiocy - in order to extend the lifetime of, and make said complaint larger than it ever was or should be. I.e., she begins harassing your and your dear son. Oy vey!"

But there was at least one commenter who seemed to understand the mother's motivation, however seemingly misguided.

"NTA. Considering how the mother is acting, she probably pushed the daughter to act the way she had," the Redditor began. "The girl is probably shy or socially inept, so the mother gave advice to her daughter to make friends, only to get her daughter bullied."

"And now, instead of stepping back and letting things be, the mom is overcorrecting once again. If word got out about [a] grown woman [behaving like this] over a middleschooler's birthday, her daughter would be bullied again," they observed. "Block the woman and go about your day. I don't know why you didn't in the first place after your son moved classes."

What do you think?