A man who has spent years distancing himself from his mom’s husband refused to cook for his 60th birthday—despite being a semi-professional chef.

When the son pointed out that this reaction was pretty predictable, his parents called him insensitive.

Read on for the story.

AITA for asking my parents why they’re surprised my half brother refused to cook my dad’s birthday dinner?

I (17m) have a half brother (32m) from my mom’s first marriage.

I always knew my half brother didn’t like my dad.

He’d make excuses about why he didn’t want to talk to my dad when he’d talk to mom, he never put my dad’s name on cards or anything.

He ignored any invites from my dad for them to hang out or had an excuse about why he couldn’t, he’d make it clear to everyone that my dad wasn’t even his stepdad and he was just married to mom in his eyes.

The other signs are my dad is only called by his name by my half brother’s three kids.

My dad never gets recognized even as a stepdad/stepgrandpa for Father’s Day.

When my half brother’s oldest had a grandparents day thing at school only my mom got the hand made invite.

The stepparent situation is always difficult.

So I think everyone else would say it’s clear where my half brother stands, yeah?

My half brother goes out of his way to make mom know he cares.

He’s a semi-professional chef and has at times made these really nice meals for her birthday. He went out for her 50th birthday dinner.

He even bought her a really nice cake.

My dad turned 60 a couple of weeks ago and mom had asked my half brother to make something for him to celebrate and he refused.

He did come but he came with his wife and left the kids home.

He brought my dad nothing and didn’t even make him treats.

He said no when asked if he’d help out in the kitchen.

Wow

My parents were bummed and I get being sad.

But they were also surprised.

They really didn’t expect him to say no.

My dad was upset my half brother didn’t bring his kids either.

He was looking forward to seeing them since he considers them his and mom’s grandkids and not just mom’s grandkids.

But they really were surprised by my half brother’s refusal.

The other day they were talking about it and I asked why they’re so surprised he refused to cook.

I said it appeared pretty obvious to me that it’d happen and I didn’t think they’d be surprised after everything.

My mom told me that my question was insensitive.

They’ve been acting all hurt I asked since.

AITA?

When someone’s been drawing a line in the sand for over a decade—don’t act shocked when they refuse to step over it.

What’s Reddit think? Well, a lot of things.

This person has some questions.

This person feels for OP.

And this person says the half brother is the AH, and his actions are leading to all the other emotions.

This dish has been cold for years—why expect it to heat up now?

Sometimes you have to accept reality.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.