If you have friends who are married or in serious dating relationships, when you have a party, should you invite the couple to your party or just the friend?

In today’s story, one man is upset because his girlfriend wasn’t invited to his friend’s birthday party. Now, he’s wondering if the best thing to do is skip the party.

Let’s read all the details.

AITA for not attending my friends birthday, because he did not invite my girlfriend (again)?

One of my closest friends, which I have known for over twenty years, throws a big birthday party outside the city with an overnight stay.

He invited me with a message on whatsapp, but made no mention of my girlfriend also being invited.

At first I figured it would be more of a boys trip kind of thing, but then I found out the girlfriends of my other friends from the same circle are all invited.

This isn’t the first time his girlfriend was excluded.

This has happened before, on another big birthday he threw.

On that occasion other guests even asked me where my girlfriend was.

I was too embarrassed to say: she was not invited, so I made up an excuse.

It’s not like he just started dating his girlfriend. Their relationship is really serious.

I am a 31 yo male, have been together with my girlfriend for 8 years, we are engaged, live together and are trying for kids.

My girlfriend and this friend have met each other on many occasions and they never had a fight or anything else that could explain why she would not be invited.

The only explanation I can come up with is that my girlfriend is generally shy, not much of a party girl and she has never really closely connected with this particular friend or the other girlfriends.

To me that should be irrelevant: she is my girlfriend, if he invites me he should be okay with inviting her as well.

He might skip the party.

I think it should be common decency that if you invite some people with their partner, that should be offered to all guests.

Simply adding a line to your invitation that says the ‘significant other’ is – of course – also welcome, should be enough.

If I ask if I can bring my girlfriend, my friend might feel obliged to say yes, but that would not really resolve the issue for me. Also, my girlfriend would understandably still not feel welcome and probably choose not to come.

I also do not want to spend another humiliating birthday, pretending I have no girlfriend. Thats why I prefer not to go to his birthday party. My plan is to call him and explain why. Am I the jerk?

He’s prioritizing his girlfriend and her feelings over his friend. That sounds like the right move and the good boyfriend thing to do.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

It couldn’t hurt to ask.

The plus one might’ve been implied.

Here are two good suggestions.

Talking to a mutual friend might clear up the situation.

A little communication goes a long way.

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.