AITA for telling my friend I won’t be inviting her out anymore?

A Reddit user (23F) recently faced conflict with a friend, Mary (22F), who ignored multiple warnings and brought her two young children to an adults-oriented Halloween event at an amusement park. The group tried to discourage her, warning that the attractions weren’t suitable for kids, and planned to stay late until midnight.

Despite agreeing at first, Mary arrived with her children, who quickly became overwhelmed, frightened, and upset by the haunted houses. As the evening wore on, Mary frequently left her kids with the group, creating tension and frustration.

Eventually, the user told Mary that she would no longer be invited if she couldn’t respect the group’s guidelines, which led Mary to block her. Now, the user is wondering if she overstepped. Read the full story below.

‘ AITA for telling my friend I won’t be inviting her out anymore?’

So my bf tells me im not the a**hole but I feel like I may be. So I F23 have a friend I’ll call Mary who’s 22. She and I work together and became friends. Well this past Saturday, I invited her out with my friend group to go to a local amusement park that goes all out for Halloween. Mary asks if she can bring her kids a 5 year old boy and an 18 month old girl.

Everyone involved tells her it’s really not a good idea as this park and it’s haunted attractions are not geared towards children and we’re planning on being there until it closes which is midnight. She seems to accept this but asks repeatedly throughout the week leading up to Saturday and she is again told no.

Well Saturday arrived and as you can guess, she brought her kids. Other people in our group asks her why and she just shrugged saying she thought the kids would have fun. They didn’t, her son got scared with in about 10 minutes of us getting into the park and began to cry begging to go home to which Mary tells him to calm down and he’ll have fun eventually.

We get in line for the first haunted house and her son again starts to cry saying he doesn’t want to go into the house. Mary then asks myself if I’ll stay and watch her son and daughter so she can go into the haunted house. I tell her no and that this is why we told her not to bring her kids.

She gets upset and drags her very scared child through the haunted house. He had a melt down and had to be carried out. This repeats through every single haunted house we attempted to go through.

Around 11:30, my boyfriend pulls me aside and tells me that he can’t take anymore of the screaming/crying and we try to break off to find a place to calm down, Mary sees this and leaves her son and daughter with us while she runs off to go on a ride.

Her son gets scared by an actor chasing people with a chainsaw and has an epic melt down. I’m doing the best I can to console him but I am rapidly running out of patients. Finally his mom comes back and I all but shove her son back into her arms. I tell Mary that my bf and I were leaving along with the rest of our group.

She gets huffy but agreed. We leave the park and go to waffle House for dinner. At this point it’s midnight and both kids are extremely tired and upset. They cry all through dinner and Mary did nothing to calm them down. Finally at the end of my rope, once we get out of the restaurant I lose my temper.

I tell Mary that this is why she was told not to bring her kids to this event and that I will not be inviting her back out again if she can’t follow the rules of the group. Mary got upset and has since blocked me and the other people who agreeded with me.

No one in the group agreed with Mary but they all did say that I didn’t need to say anything about it to her and I didn’t need to tell her I wasn’t inviting her out again.. AITAH?

Here’s what people had to say to OP:

peakeenbean −  NTA and she’s a s**tty mom

Suspicious-Loss5460 −  N.T.A. “they all did say that I didn’t need to say anything about it to her and I didn’t need to tell her I wasn’t inviting her out again.”  IF. You and the others in the group don’t say anything. What’s to stop her from repeating this behavior? She might want to also put more consideration towards her children and other people she hangs out with. As opposed to putting her own wants first.

graywisteria −  NTA. Not only is Mary an inconsiderate friend, she’s a cruel parent. Those poor kids. 🙁

Worth-Season3645 −  NTA…Honestly, I would have ditched Mary long before you did. I would have told her that you and your boyfriend are not going to be witha scared, screaming child all night and Mary deserves any nightmares those kids may have over the next few weeks because of her actions.

And I most definitely would not have sat either her at The Waffle House. Those poor children. You said you were not going to invite her. You did not say no one else could. And I bet those sticking up for her will soon get tired of Mary bringing her children.

SubjectBuilder3793 −  NTA. YES YOU DID HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING! The rest of the group is too chicken s**t to confront her after she ruined the experience for eveyone. And I do mean eveyone. Kids: hated it. You: hated it. Group friends : not happy at all. YOur husband: Had to put his foot down to leave.

SHe dragged everyone through a cringy , cruel , long night of her kids being scared and sad. *She shouldn’t ever be invited again.* ***And she should know exactly why.*** (Since she is ultra-dense and s**fish to boot).

CoverCharacter8179 −  I am rapidly running out of patients. That gave me a chuckle. I was thinking that there should be plenty of patients in this environment, assuming you’re a trauma surgeon, or a cardiologist…

Anyway, def NTA, just really atrocious parenting by Mary, as well as bad social skills (ignoring people repeatedly telling her they didn’t want her to bring her kids on this outing). Also, pretty bad take by the friends who are suggesting you should just not invite her and not tell her why. Not an appropriate way to treat someone who’s supposed to be a friend.

Malibu_Cola −  NTA. She made her bed, and has to lie in it. The fact that she had the audacity to leave her kids with you while she has fun is wild. She sounds very e**itled and never gets told “no”.

Purlz1st −  NTA but I’ve never heard of an amusement park that would allow little kids into that kind of attraction. Usually kids under 13 or so aren’t allowed into the park that late.

blackcatsneakattack −  I’d be calling CPS for the trauma she inflicted on those poor kids.

[Reddit User] −  I would have left her at the first sign of crying and melt downs. That woman is not a good mother

Do you think the user was right to express her frustration, or should she have let the situation go without addressing it? How would you handle a friend disregarding group boundaries in this way? Share your thoughts below!