While pranks can sometimes lighten the mood, there’s a fine line between humorous and hurtful.

When her sons decide to prank their stepsister who had just gotten out of the hospital (on her birthday, no less), the celebration turns sour – fast.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for telling my husband he exaggerated when he said my kids ruined his daughter’s birthday?

Last week was my stepdaughter’s (SD) 14th birthday.

She had been going through a bit of a rough time recently, so her family tried to make it up to her.

She had been in the hospital days prior for a medical issue, but now she was feeling better. My husband threw her a small birthday party to celebrate.

That is, until her stepbrothers decided to mess everything up.

Unbeknownst to me, my boys (16 and 12) decided to pull a prank on SD and mess with her birthday cake.

Instead of adding icing, they added mayonnaise, which did not go well.

Obviously, this was very upsetting for the teen.

SD’s reaction was to cry, and my husband got really upset with the boys.

They explained that they were just pranking her, as pranking each other is something they often do.

The husband couldn’t believe her sons would do something like this on such a special day.

My husband told them that it was the wrong time for such a prank, especially after SD had just gotten out of the hospital.

He said they ruined her birthday, but I thought he was exaggerating.

But the mother doesn’t think it’s such a big deal.

I defended the boys, explaining that they love her, and that’s why they did it, but my husband disagreed.

He got upset and yelled at me for defending their behavior and enabling them.

Now tensions between the family are higher than ever.

Now both he and SD aren’t speaking to me or the boys.

AITA for saying he exaggerated?

After this whole debacle, it’s not just the cake that will need fixing.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter thought the phrasing of the mom’s question left out some important details.

This user thinks this little ordeal falls squarely in the “ruining the entire birthday party” territory.

This mother has a clear role to play here in nipping her sons’ harmful behavior in the bud, but she’s failing pretty miserably at it so far.

It was the girl’s birthday, for god’s sake.

Ruining someone’s birthday is no laughing matter – especially when that person just got out of the hospital.

This commenter doesn’t mince their words.

Reddit has spoken: This wasn’t some harmless prank; It was hurtful and just plain mean!

When it comes to pranks, timing is everything – and in this scenario, the timing couldn’t have been worse.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.