Build-A-Bear Birthday Party Takes Weird Turn

As a parent, you know that taking your kids to birthday parties is part of the deal. In exchange for the present you bring, you assume that your kid will get cake and some sort of gift bag to take home at the end of the party.

Imagine taking your kids to Build-A-Bear where they put the time in effort into building a new bear only to have to give it away to the birthday girl at the end of the party.

That is exactly what happened to a mom over the weekend. She went to Reddit and asked if that was a normal thing to happen. Here is what she posted:

We get to the store, and the kids go wild getting their animals and accessories. As far as I know the parents didn’t really put a limit, but I made my daughter stick to just a standard dog with a shirt, which about half the parents did as well. All is well, we leave the store, then friends mom announces that the kids need to give all their animals to her daughter. Cue the upset and angry kids. They all disappointingly handed over their animals, and friend wasn’t even being nice about it either. Another little boy didn’t want to, and friend ripped it out of his hands. I probably should have said something, but I didn’t. The other parents seemed pretty baffled too.

The mom went on to say she confronted the birthday girls mom later on about the party

Update:

This afternoon at school pickup me and another parent had a chance to talk with the mom of the party. It wasn’t a long conversation, but I’ll do my best to re-enact it here. Moms fake name will be Karen.

 

Karen- ... I hope the girls enjoyed (daughters) party the other day. I know (daughter) had lots of fun.

Other mom- Haha yeah I was actually wondering about the whole (daughter) getting all the bears thing. The kids seemed pretty upset afterwards.

Karen- Oh yeah we wanted (daughter) to have a special animal decorated by each of her friends.

Me- Oh okay. I was just wondering why the kids didn’t get to keep their bears. I even pitched in a little bit of money, assuming the bears would go to the kids.

Karen- Well I didn’t have enough money for each of the guests to make their own, that would get pretty expensive! If you want your money back I’ll see about getting it back to you. I don’t really see the problem though.

Me- Okay, well the kids were forced to give away their new creations, obviously they are going to be upset about it. I also don’t see why your daughter needs all these animals.

Karen didn’t respond and walked away right after, probably offended.

How would you have handled the issue? Would you of said something or just move on?