What would you do if your cousin was throwing a big birthday party her mom, your aunt, a family member you never really liked?

Would you go to the party?

In today’s story, nobody seems to want to go to the party, but one woman is wondering if she went too far by being honest with her cousin, the person throwing the party.

Let’s see why this party is shaping up to be a bust.

AITA for telling my cousin why no one wants to attend my aunts 80th birthday party?

A few months ago my cousin (58F) sent out a group text message about planning a big birthday bash for my aunt who’s turning 80 in July, followed by invites that were mailed.

RSVP responses were slow and not encouraging (my brother (45) totally bailed when the first text went out).

So she recently started sending reminder emails including the adult children of all us cousins which has now turned into a different mess.

The cousin has changed her invitation strategy.

None of the adult children of any of my cousins are interested in attending.

Many are in college/university and all of them are scattered around the US and haven’t seen our aunt (their great aunt) in years.

As result, my cousin is now promoting this as ‘family reunion’/80th birthday party.

There are very good reasons why nobody wants to go to this party.

What my cousin is ignoring is that my aunt was horrible when we were growing up.

She couldn’t stand kids and constantly picked, yelled and even threatened us with physical harm if we didn’t behave at every family gathering.

She got drunk one Christmas Eve and told my late mom that she never wanted my cousin (who’s planning the event) and that’s why she went into the military.

After that my mom never felt comfortable around her and felt bad for my cousin because clearly her mother abandoned her.

We all have nothing but bad memories of her and mostly kept our own kids away from her as we got older and started our own families.

When her cousin asked if she was going to the party, she might’ve been too honest.

Yesterday she called to ask why me (49) and my own adult daughters F(18 & 20) haven’t responded back and if we plan on attending because the invites she sent out weren’t coming back quickly enough.

And I said “Your the only one who really wants to celebrate your moms birthday with a big bash, so maybe you should lower your expectations”.

She got quiet on the phone and asked me to clarify if we were attending and I said “No, we decline”.

I’ve gotten a few text messages from cousins who claim she’s heartbroken that I dismissed her ‘good intentions’ while my brother said she had it coming.

AITA for being too honest?

I’m honestly surprised the cousin wants to throw this big party considering how her mom treated her.

It sounds like she really does need to lower her expectations for the celebration.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted.

This person thinks it’s okay to be honest.

Another person feels bad for the cousin.

I’m confused about why she’s throwing the party too.

This is a really good idea!

The aunt doesn’t deserve a big party.

It’s time to stand up to her.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.