'Sweat shop': Wild birthday party plot twist omitted from invitation

"This only happened because the mum didn't do things 'officially' through Build-A-Bear."

A seven-year-old girl has been spoiled rotten at her birthday party - but it wasn’t just because of the generosity of her guests. 

The celebration, partly held at Build-A-Bear, should have been joyous, but instead turned into a fiasco that one aunty refuses to grin and, ahem, bear.  

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"Birthday party for girl who wanted Build-A-Bear gifts"

The story of a woman attending a party with her seven-year-old niece was shared anonymously to Reddit, and TikToker Unplugged Moments recounted it recently - with her video sparking universal outrage about the birthday girl's mum; almost 40k comments and 11 million views.

She refers to the birthday girl as ‘Sarah’ in the video, so we will, too.  

An aunt had volunteered to take her niece to a party, because her brother and sister-in-law were working.

The itinerary was clear: meet at the food court to eat, enjoy some time at Build-A-Bear (where the guests would visit as members of the public, not an official party), before finishing at Sarah’s house for cake. 

All up there were eight children attending the party, including Sarah.  

However, the red flags started quite early into the event. 

“They did not book a party through Build-A-Bear. It’s just as a regular customer coming in,” she explained. 

“On the girl's invite, mind you, it says ‘Sarah’s 7th birthday’, what we’re going to do, ‘every child will be able to build a build a bear'." 

Technically, that was true - every child who attended got to make a bear.

On the day, they found that Sarah's mum had covered the cost of the bears; however the aunt chipped in an additional $35 for accessories that her niece wanted.  

After taking a group photo at the front of the store with their completed bears, Sarah’s mother dropped quite the plot twist. 

Image: Supplied/Reddit

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"Hand over your bears"

“Cue the birthday mum - ‘Okay, thank you everyone. Now you can hand over your bears to Sarah. Thank you so much for building a personal bear so that Sarah can remember you by',” the aunty revealed the guests were told.  

“I thought they were going to keep the bear. I thought that was it.... So I may be in the wrong, but I looked at the invite again and I was like it didn’t say anything."  

She had assumed that the bears were for the children attending.... not that they would spend so much time 'building' a bear that they would need to hand over to the birthday girl.

She brushed it off and returned to Sarah's house as planned where they gave her the present they’d brought along separately, sang happy birthday and enjoyed cake. 

@unpluggedmoments

Niece didn’t get to keep the Build Better from Sarah’s 7th Birthday party. Reddit storyteller. Reddit stories. #birthday #birthdayparty #reddit #birthdaygirl #buildabear #birthdaycake #birthdaygift #birthdaysurprise

♬ original sound - Unplugged Moments

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"Feel sorry for Sarah" 

Eventually, the nagging feeling became to much and she pulled Sarah’s mother aside. 

“I tapped the mum and said ‘excuse me. Maybe I have a misunderstanding on the invite it says the kids were able to 'build a bear’ she was like ‘yeah build a bear for Sarah to keep’,” she recounted.

That was when the aunt decided it was best to leave the party, with many of the other parents following close behind her. 

Commenters were outraged by the birthday girl's mum's behaviour. 

“‘No gift necessary, the kids will be building a bear for Sarah, take home bears can be made at parents' expense’ THAT IS WHAT THE INVITE SHOULD HAVE SAID,” one commenter argued. 

“Her mum made a sweatshop for her daughter to get gifts,” another bluntly put it. 

“That mum single handedly ended all of her daughter’s friendships,” a third added. 

And another viewer made this point: "This only happened because the mum didn't do things 'officially' through Build-A-Bear."

The aunt agreed with most of the feedback, and added, “I feel sorry for Sarah’s birthday next year."

Afterwards, she took her niece back to the store so that she could build a bear to keep. 

“That was the only right thing to do."

Please note: An earlier version of this story could have been interpreted by some readers that Build-A-Bear was responsible for the Aunt's interpretation of the invitation, which is not the case. As mentioned in the original story, and here, the party was not organised through Build-A-Bear.

Originally published as 'Sweat shop': Wild birthday party plot twist omitted from invitation