Moms Weigh In: Birthday Party No-Show Invoice was Wrong

— -- In the court of social media, it’s difficult to find anyone who supports Julie Lawrence, the mom who sent the invoice to the parents of a 5-year-old boy who missed her son’s birthday party.

Quick recap: Cornwall, U.K. residents Derek Nash and Tanya Walsh said they were shocked when their son, Alex, arrived home from preschool with a brown envelope stuffed in his backpack. Inside there was a formal invoice from another mother, Julie Lawrence, for £15.95 ($24.14): monies due, apparently, for failing to RSVP to her son's fete when Alex could no longer attend.

Of the nearly 400 comments on our story, supporters of the mom who sent the invoice were few and far between.

And a call out to moms on Facebook garnered reactions from “My daughter is 2 and I have gone all out for my daughter's parties and never would even dream of sending someone an invoice for not showing up. This is the craziest and the rudest thing I have ever heard” to “that's the risk of having a party. People all have lives that have things that come up unexpectedly. It's rude not to give a heads up, but that's just the tackiest thing ever to send a bill” to “If you are able to spend that amount of money on a party then you can certainly cover a no-show.”

One mom chimed in: “Sounds snarky, but kind of wish I could have done this to ten people who no-showed to my wedding.”

One mom who said she isn’t afraid to go all out for her son’s birthday parties told ABC News even she, who spent as much as $1,500 on a video game bus to come to Manhattan for a party, thinks it was bad form to send the invoice. Still, Beth Silver said that while she understands it can be annoying if people don’t show up for a party, Lawrence needs to take a step back.

“These parents now have made their point and I can almost guarantee that people will NOT want to be at that kids party next year or may not even want a playdate - social emotional learning. Who wants to deal with such nonsense. If the child was sick or a sick relative, would that have been different?”

According to Alex’s parents, the boy was also booked to see his grandparents that day, which kept him from Lawrence’s son’s birthday party.

The Twittersphere is showing little sympathy to Lawrence. Readers: Does anyone out there support Lawrence’s decision to send the invoice?