6-year-old forced to cancel birthday party by Girl Scout troop: 'We just got here!'

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  • Kids play with a piñata at an outdoor birthday party.
  • Am I wrong for ruining a six year old’s birthday party?

    I am a Girl Scout troop leader. I have been for many years. Every year, I rent out a park pavilion for my girls so we can host our 'end of year' party. All of the girls' parents come, and I give a little award ceremony.
  • Basically, I call all of the girls up one by one, read a little speech, and give them all of the patches they earned this year. School ends in a few weeks, but a couple of our girls have family vacations, so we decided to have our party a little
  • early to ensure everyone could come. Anyway, I get to the park with my co-leader to set up all of the decorations at the pavilion. We rented it from 1-5. It's a couple of minutes after 1pm when we get there.
  • Little girl looks downtrodden after her birthday party spot gets taken away.
  • Unfortunately, there appears to be a big child's birthday party going on in the pavilion. I assumed it was a mid- morning party running a little late, so I walk up and ask the mom if they're finishing up. She's immediately confused.
  • "Finishing up? We just got here!" she told me. I felt very awkward. I stood silently for a moment, sharing nervous glances with my co-leader. My co-leader kinda nudged at my shoulder to get me to speak to the mom.
  • Finally, I tell her that we have the pavilion reserved for a Girl Scout party, and that you're *really* supposed to rent these things out before you use them. I said it as nice as I could, and I apologized profusely. But she immediately starts
  • screaming at me, throwing a fit about how I'm ruining her six year old's party, this is unbelievable, how could I be so selfish, etc. etc. Again, I feel SUPER awkward and I'm just continuously apologizing, but I stress the fact that I
  • reserved this pavilion, and that I have roughly ~25 people getting here in thirty minutes to have our award ceremony. Eventually her husband got her to calm down, and they all angrily began to tear down their party decorations while glaring
  • at me and loudly making passive-aggressive comments. A few of the kids were crying when they got into their cars to leave the park.
  • My co-leader insisted I did the right thing. We reserved it, and they didn't. But now it's been a couple of days and I still feel awful about ruining that little boy's birthday party. Please, give it to me straight. AITA?
  • This is a good point

    FuzzyCat_6578 NTA but you need to grow a backbone. You can't just apologize over and over when you did nothing wrong. You are in a position of leadership. These girls will learn how to act by emulating you. You will impact their behavior and social skills in life. Be a stronger leader for them.
  • TeenySod NTA Those parents are though: they were the ones that ruined their kid's birthday by not planning. ahead like you did. Your girls would have been disappointed if you'd told them that you couldn't have your 'end of year' party, better to disappoint the entitled strangers who shouldn't have been there in the first place.
  • It's poor planning with no backup plan, either

    sparklestronaut There's a great quote to keep in mind in situations like this-"poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part". NTA
  • Little girl and her friends celebrate a birthday party while she holds a huge present.

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