Mom Ignites Debate After Stranger Denied Her Child Cake At Birthday Party Because They Were ‘Not’ Her ‘Friends’

Jul 30, 2023

It’s no secret that each person has their own parenting style that may conflict with others. One mother learned this the hard way when she was left enraged and perplexed by another mom’s actions after she and her daughter returned from a visit to a neighborhood park. Unsettled by the incident, TikTok star Kat Stickler took to the platform to recount the day’s turn of events and enlisted the help of her viewers to decide whether or not she was making a mountain of a molehill.

Stickler began her video with a disclaimer and said she wasn’t in the habit of mom-shaming anyone, with the exception of herself and her own mother. 

“I’m going to mom shame. The only people I’ve ever mom-shamed are myself and my own mother. But one other mother is going to be added to the list,” she said before she went into an explanation about what had occurred.

Stickler said she and her young daughter, MK, were at the park near their Florida home when they realized a birthday party was being held there at the same time. As children are wont to do, MK soon began to befriend the other children at the party and play with them as Stickler monitored her from afar. 

“I thought they were welcoming her with open arms,” Stickler said. However, her assumption was soon quashed when, after about half an hour of play, it was birthday cake time. MK joined the other children in lining up for the cake, and her mother was not far behind.

“So I, like, walk over to make sure it’s OK — as a formality,” Stickler recalled. “Honestly, I was like, obviously it’s OK. It’s cake. It’s a massive cake. There’s lots of leftover pieces.” But Stickler couldn’t have been more wrong.

As MK stood in line, plate in hand, ready for her slice, Stickler said the most bewildering thing happened.

“The mother takes the plate away from MK, and gets down to her level and says, ‘You cannot eat this cake, OK? This is not your birthday party. These are not your friends. Where’s your mother?’” Stickler told her viewers while barely disguising her rage. 

While the incident left Stickler with a sour taste in her mouth, she urged for feedback from her viewers. Many sided with Stickler, but some also suggested Stickler should have approached the other mom earlier.

“That’s so mean! If they were all playing happily together and it’s a big cake why not share?!” one user said, while another commented, “‘These are not your friends’ is such a catty messed up thing to say to anyone, let alone a child.”

Others said they would have reacted differently from Stickler and intervened far sooner.

“As a parent tho for me, as soon as cake time came and I would’ve pulled my daughter, we weren’t invited 🤷🏽‍♀️I wouldn’t expect her to get cake,” a comment read while another viewer asked, “Did you introduce yourself to the mom and let her know if it's okay that your child hang out with the other kids? As a courtesy?”

Meanwhile, Stickler told Today that, after the incident, she took little MK out for ice cream and cake. “She was totally fine. She was excited to go get ice cream with me!” Stickler said. She added her viewers have been extremely curious to know how she responded to the other mom. 

“People have been asking me, ‘What did you say to the mom?’” Stickler remarked. “The mom was literally the least of my concerns. I was worried about MK.”

What are your thoughts on the incident? How would you have reacted to the situation? Let us know, and then pass this on to all the mama bears you know to get their opinions on it, too!