For many people, birthdays are an important event that they love to celebrate with loved ones.
What would you do if your family cancelled your birthday party once, and then they adjusted the time of the rescheduled party without even telling you?
That is what happened to the young lady in this story, so even though she arrived late, she also decided to leave early.
Let’s dive into all the details…
AITA for leaving my rescheduled birthday lunch after the original was cancelled
I am 24F and it is my 25th birthday next week and I share my birthday with my Grandfather.
My parents split when I was young and I have been an only child my entire life.
I don’t ask for much, and I’m a chronic people pleaser.
My dad is in his 50s and has a wife 20 years his junior who is pregnant with their/her first child.
She is from a different country that is 10+ hours away.
I had a birthday lunch scheduled for next weekend which was planned around my Dad’s schedule.
Unfortunate, but plans change.
However my dad called me on Thursday and said joyfully “I’m flying to wife’s home country on Tuesday so family lunch is cancelled.”
I asked some follow up questions and found out that her family is going to a theme park.
He asked if I had plans for the weekend, and I told him I did because I’d already organized multiple things with multiple people.
I ended the call and cried.
She was able to reschedule lunch, the only problem is that she’s running late.
I talked to my friends, cancelled my plans and rescheduled the family lunch for Saturday (36 hours from phone call to the new lunch).
Everything gets organized and it gets to Saturday.
I am 30 minutes into the 2 hour drive to my parents town and get a call from my grandmother asking where I am.
I has aimed to arrive at 12:00, I left late and there was traffic so my arrival time was planned for 12:45pm.
Lunch is always 12/12:30.
Hopefully this was just an oversight.
My grandmother tells me my Dad had moved lunch to 11:30 and no one had informed me, I was the only person who needed to travel more than 20 minutes.
I spoke to my grandmother about dropping my dog to her house before lunch as I would be staying in the area the night, and couldn’t have him at the venue.
She was more than happy with this and said my dad’s dog wouldn’t be there, which was necessary as the dogs do not get along.
I continue on the drive, and the family chat has messages relating to people arriving and my dad being late.
It’s 12:45 and I get to my grandparents house, and I see my dad’s dog in the window.
I’m sure that was unintentional.
He’d dropped him off and didn’t tell anyone.
I now have no where to take my dog and am on the brink of tears.
I go to lunch and wish my grandfather a happy birthday and give him his present but let him know I will not be staying.
I tell him about the dog situation and a family member commented that I looked like I was about to break down.
I told them I’d had a terrible week, and I pretty much was stressed out.
That was nice of her to offer.
My dad’s wife says they can take their dog somewhere else and I tell her it’s too late, so she just gets up from the table and walks away.
I go to leave and my dad stopped me.
He said he knew he’d hurt me, he’d had a sleepless night, he was sorry and wanted me to stay.
I told him I didn’t want to stay, yes he had hurt me and I wanted to leave.
Wow, he is really kicking her while she is down.
He let me go and then stopped me again and said “You’re being a real brat.”
So I left and I didn’t go back.
AITA?
It sounds like this family needs to work on communicating more effectively.
Let’s see if the people in the comments have anything helpful to say.
Here is someone who suggests going low contact with the family.
This person wishes her the best for her birthday.
She didn’t do anything wrong.
Do they even care about her birthday?
This person thinks her dad is acting like he is 5.
Dad really needs to make his daughter a priority.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.