Some surprises make people feel special, while others make them question everything.

When one woman turned 50, she expected a thoughtful gift from her husband, but what she got was a household appliance that sucked the joy right out of what was supposed to be an important milestone.

Read on for the full story!

My husband got me a vacuum for my 50th

Title says it all. Turned 50 yesterday.

Husband (53M) woke me up, told me he had a surprise for me downstairs.

But clearly her husband’s definition of “surprise” was questionable.

I go downstairs and see a vacuum — not even wrapped, mind you.

He said he thought I’d like a new one since the current one doesn’t have the ability to turn off the brush roller when using it on hard floors.

To say she was underwhelmed would be an understatement.

I never asked for a new one. It works fine.

That was my birthday.

Not even a lunch or dinner out.

She thought he was planning so much more than this.

He mentioned a month ago about doing something special and going on a trip.

I asked about that, and he said he figured I’d tell him when and where I wanted to go.

He never asked where but did mention several times over the past month that he had a surprise for me.

It was hard to ignore the glaring differences between their choices of gifts.

Apparently, it was a vacuum.

We’ve been married 17 years.

When he turned 50, I took him to Hawaii.

This birthday symbolized so much more for her than just a day.

Maybe I’m just being hypersensitive.

Turning 50 has been a hard number for me —parents and grandparents all passed in that decade.

Now she’s wondering if she’s just overreacting.

AITA for hoping or expecting that maybe he could have planned and surprised me with something? Anything?

Something more than an Amazon next-day delivery vacuum?

If this is the husband’s idea of romance, this couple is in for a world of trouble.

What did Reddit have to say?

A vacuum is an objectively bad gift for a milestone birthday.

It’s really the principle of the thing here.

Everyone just wants the chance to feel special on their birthday.

No one who was gifted a tropical vacation should think a vacuum is an acceptable gift in return.

There’s a fine line between practical and thoughtless, and this husband crossed it big time.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.