A mother has been left heartbroken after none of her son’s friends showed up at his recent birthday party.
The TikTok user @dawners86 from Canada shared that her son JJ was left to play alone in the park after no one came for his sixth birthday celebration.
A disappointed mom insisted that COVID restrictions had been lifted in her neighborhood, so there was no reason for guests not to attend the birthday party, especially that they chose to host the event outdoors in a park to make people feel more comfortable.
In a TikTok video that gain more than two million views, the mom had opened up about the disheartening moment.
“So we’re sitting at the park for JJ’s birthday party, we got everything ready, his party started half an hour ago,” she said in the video. “He had literally zero people show up for his birthday. My poor little man.”
The heartbreaking scene shows Dawner is speaking while JJ is playing in the park by himself, as she sits at the table full of assembled birthday decorations, drinks, and colorful cupcakes.
“Out of 22 invites… no one came… I know it’s a pandemic, but it is a park, and we have reopened in my province,” she said. “Sorry the video is shaky, I am so upset for this poor guy. He deserves better. He’s amazing.”
She captioned it with “heart broken. #heartbroken #sosad #hurt #wow #lonely #poorguy #sadboy #birthday #happybirthday #omg #cry”.
The clip has since gone viral, being watched over three million times, garnering more than 550,000 likes and 20,000 comments. Thousand of viewers also took time to comment on the clip and share messages for JJ.
“My mamma heart just broke,” one commenter said. “I have questions, what is he into right now? Where can I send him gifts? I am dead serious.”
“This is why we ALWAYS show,” another one wrote. “No matter what. My girl is there with a gift and a smile.”
“PLEASE tell me you told him you accidentally got the day wrong,” a third commenter said.
“Bro, I don’t normally show emotions or get upset about anything but when people don’t come to kids parties it is the one thing that makes me cry,” said another.
“Happy birthday little man and don’t worry about those ‘friends’ they showed their true colors today,” a person has said. “You don’t need them.”
“This happened with my son’s eighth birthday party,” a person with a similar experience said. “I’m so sorry. I lied and told him that I must not have put stamps on the invitations.”
Lots of individuals also offered to send JJ greeting cards and gifts for his birthday, asking what kinds of activities Dawn’s son enjoys.
However, Dawn shared in a follow-up clip that her son had asked whether her followers would send any spare toys or donations to their nearest children’s hospital.
“All the comments and offers to buy JJ presents, they are greatly appreciated, but JJ doesn’t need any toys [so] he has asked very politely if you guys would send any extra gifts to the children’s hospital closest to you,” she said. “He has toys. He just wanted to spend time with friends. So thank you all for the offers, but please we don’t need the gifts.”
The saddened mom later explained that she “made a whole bunch of phone calls” to close family and friends to see if somebody could make it to the party at such short notice so that her son still had people to celebrate with.
In the end, two sets of parents arrived to save the day, with one even bringing a homemade cuddly toy to the occasion.
“No school friends but the back-ups showed up,” she shared. “They understood the assignment.”