Sometimes planning the perfect surprise comes with a bunch of complications.

Imagine you were organizing a surprise birthday party for your girlfriend.

But the actual day landed on a weekday when you had work and travel costs made visiting tough.

Would you find a way to do both? Or would you risk upsetting her in order to keep the surprise alive?

In the following story, one young man grapples with this very decision.

Here’s where he’s at with it.

WIBTA for not visiting my girlfriend on her Birthday?

My (20M) GF (18F) will have her birthday next week on Wednesday.

I have planned a surprise party for the weekend after Wednesday with all of her friends. I’m planning to pay for everything, including food and drinks.

The problem now is that we live in other cities 110km apart.

It’s not a long drive by train, but it takes longer by car.

Usually, when we see each other on the weekends, she takes the train to me, and I pick her up with my car from the train station and drive back to my place.

Her mother said she would help but suggested his plan may not work.

She is always coming to me because she is a student and has a student card, which lets her ride everywhere for free or for a really cheap amount of money.

Alternatively, if I were to drive to her, I would need to pay 30 euros for one way. With the car, I would pay 50% less.

So now, the real problem. I asked her mom if she could make sure she doesn’t go anywhere that weekend, so I could secretly pick her up and drive her to her surprise party.

Her mom told me that she would do it, but then her mother asked me if I could come to her birthday on Wednesday, to which I replied, “Sadly, I cannot since it costs a lot of money and time, and I sadly have to work until evening on that day.”

Now, he’s stuck making a tough decision.

She then explained that it would make her daughter sad, possibly even mad, and she would probably not let me pick her up on the weekend.

I seriously can’t drive to her because of work. I have to pay for parking and have a reservation for my work, so I can’t drive my car to her.

I would need to drive by train, but I would end up really late to her place, so I can instantly go back to sleep, wake up at 5-6 am, and then instantly go to work from her place.

Her mom and her Friend told me she would be really mad and sad if I wasn’t there on her birthday.

AITA?

Yikes! Wouldn’t want to trade shoes with him!

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit think he should do about this dilemma.

Everyone has to accept this sooner or later.

This reader suggests he give his girlfriend a heads-up.

Yet another person thinks he should talk to his girlfriend.

Here’s someone who thinks the girlfriend would be petty for that.

He should talk to his girlfriend.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.