--- title: 5-Year-Old Gets Invoiced for Skipping Birthday Party description: His parents found a $24 invoice in his book bag canonical: https://time.com/3673707/birthday-boy-no-show-invoice/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-19T16:52:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:16:02.983Z og:title: 5-Year-Old Hit With 'No-Show Fee' for Skipping Birthday Party og:description: His parents found a $24 invoice in his book bag og:url: https://time.com/3673707/birthday-boy-no-show-invoice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6810b9cd83f8c288/69877ab7f887dc21e4e899b4/birthday-cupcake1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Cupcake on Pink background og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 5-Year-Old Hit With 'No-Show Fee' for Skipping Birthday Party twitter:description: His parents found a $24 invoice in his book bag twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6810b9cd83f8c288/69877ab7f887dc21e4e899b4/birthday-cupcake1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 5-Year-Old Hit With 'No-Show Fee' for Skipping Birthday Party  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jan 19, 2015 4:52 PM UTC  Cupcake on Pink background Cupcake on Pink backgroundJason Verschoor—Getty Images  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jan 19, 2015 4:52 PM UTC A [5-year-old boy was given an invoice](http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-30876360) from a classmate’s mother after he failed to show up to the classmate’s birthday party. Derek Nash said his son Alex was confirmed to attend a birthday party at a dry ski slope when he realized Alex was double-booked and scheduled to spend time with his grandmother, the BBC reports. Nash said he didn’t have the contact information of Julie Lawrence, the classmate’s mother, and later found the £15.95 invoice (about $24) in his son’s book bag. “I can understand that she’s upset about losing money,” Nash says. “The money isn’t the issue, it’s the way she went about trying to get the money from me.” Nash said he has been threatened with small-claims court if he does not pay. “All details were on the party invite,” Lawrence said in a statement to the BBC. “They had every detail needed to contact me.” \[[_BBC_](http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-30876360)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3673707/birthday-boy-no-show-invoice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3673707/birthday-boy-no-show-invoice/"},"headline":"5-Year-Old Hit With 'No-Show Fee' for Skipping Birthday Party","datePublished":"2015-01-19T16:52:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:16:02.983Z","description":"His parents found a $24 invoice in his book bag","url":"https://time.com/3673707/birthday-boy-no-show-invoice/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Bizarre","england"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6810b9cd83f8c288/69877ab7f887dc21e4e899b4/birthday-cupcake1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6810b9cd83f8c288/69877ab7f887dc21e4e899b4/birthday-cupcake1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Cupcake on Pink background","caption":"Cupcake on Pink background","creditText":"Jason Verschoor—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3673707/birthday-boy-no-show-invoice/","name":"5-Year-Old Hit With 'No-Show Fee' for Skipping Birthday Party"}}]}] ```