‘The ridiculous reason my 8 year old was stood up on a playdate’

"Wow! That's so rude."

Image: iStock.

A mum and her eight-year-old daughter were left waiting for nearly an hour at a restaurant, after their friends simply didn't turn up.

The disappointed mum and daughter duo had pre-arranged a lunch at a family friendly pizza place and offered to take the little friend back to their house for the afternoon. 

While the time and location had been locked in, the mum says she also confirmed plans the night before with “several messages exchanged” between the parents.

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"We waited at the restaurant for 40 minutes"

“On the day my daughter was excited,” the mum explains before sharing how the day actually panned out.

“I bought pizzas and then we waited at the restaurant for nearly 40 minutes. My daughter was getting worried so I texted the parent to check all was okay as we hadn't heard anything.”

Ten minutes later - and nearly an hour after their agreed meeting time - her mobile began to ring.

“The parent rang me to say her child had a sniffle and they'd been making their lunch so forgot to let me know that the playdate was cancelled. 

“They then started asking if we could have the playdate tomorrow or as soon as possible. I was reluctant to commit.”

The mum says her daughter was so disappointed and questioned why the mum could not have let her know earlier if indeed her daughter was sick that day. 

The parent on the phone then started backtracking on the whole illness issue and asked if she could drop her kid round at her house later. 

“I said we'd made plans but just thought the whole thing was totally rude and strange.

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"Inconsiderate and unkind"

In the comments, most agreed this was not okay and frankly, it was incredibly rude. 

"This parent is inconsiderate and unkind, your poor daughter must have felt really let down and rejected," one poster wrote.

"The excuses were poor and offhand, and I think my way of dealing with it would be to first take into consideration how close my child was to her child. If they are very close, you may have to bite your tongue and try to make the best of it, if not then I wouldn’t bother arranging any more play dates with them."

Another added: “It is very unfortunate that a parent would have so little respect for your time and effort. How inconsiderate.”

One mum said this type of catch up - meeting a restaurant halfway between their homes - sounded a bit over the top.

"It sounds a bit over complicated to be honest.

"In future I'd suggest simply dropping off/picking up at home. One parent drops off and the other picks up."

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"The final straw for me"

A few parents had similar tales of woe with bad playdates and poor behaviour from supposed 'friends'.

"I had a mum turn up 50 minutes late for a play date," one mum recalls.

"She lives less than a five minutes drive or a 15 minutes walk away. She said she got chatting to the neighbour as they left their house. I wasn't happy and didn't invite them over again and that was the final straw for me after constant lengthy lateness."

Another one added: "Similar happened to me except with a younger child and toddler. I'd arranged to meet a friend for lunch on my way home from a morning nursery session.

"I was sat in the restaurant. Starving but waiting to order. Eventually [I got] a phone call saying she was just making lunch and had only just remembered. I felt so embarrassed.

"I ordered lunch then for me and my child because I was so hungry, but it was annoying as I wouldn't have spent that money alone otherwise - it was meant to be sociable.

"I gave the mum one more chance by agreeing to meet for coffee a few weeks later. She was about 20 minutes late, so that was the nail in the coffin for me."

Finally one mum said that with awkward encounters like this, it might be better to simply stop seeing her.

"It's okay to stop making the effort. Presumably the kids will see each other at school? That'll have to be enough for now.

"Sorry this happened to you, OP. It's so disheartening. Lean on your real friends."

Originally published as ‘The ridiculous reason my 8 year old was stood up on a playdate’