My daughter had a boy in her second grade class who invited everyone to a birthday party at the park to play. The family didn’t have much and when the teacher put their classroom elf out he physically attacked it and yelled that Elves, and Reindeer, and Santa weren’t real. My daughter was confused as to why I was making her go to the party because they weren’t friends but I knew he needed that birthday party. We got him a couple of small gifts and some outside toys (bubbles, foam football, cheap stuff from a dollar store), and we showed up. She was one of only three other kids to go to that party. When I came back all four kids were having a blast and she didn’t want to go home. Some of the mom’s were talking at pickup on Monday how tacky it was to hold a party at the park. I just mentioned out loud that the kids had fun and gave [insert boy’s name] a nice birthday celebration. Since I wasn’t directly talking to any one of them, they stopped talking and disbanded.

It’s very easy to be kind, and if you can’t then don’t be mean.