A child’s first aware birthday is one of those milestone moments that parents feel very protective over — and for good reason.

A mom planning her son’s third birthday dinner got a text from her mother-in-law asking if she could hand out her nephew’s gifts at the same celebration, since she had bought them matching items anyway.

Considering her mother-in-law’s history with favoritism, this completely rubbed the mom the wrong way. So she set a strong boundary, but soon began to wonder if she went overboard.

Keep reading — the internet has a lot of thoughts on this one!

AITAH for telling my MIL my nephew can’t open presents at my son’s bday?

My son’s 3rd birthday is tomorrow.

This is the first birthday he is aware of and excited about.

We invited my husband’s family over for a small dinner to celebrate.

So then came the matter of gift giving.

My MIL asked me if she could give my nephew his birthday presents tomorrow too, since she got him the same things as my son.

I told her she could give them the matching shoes she got them, since it’s seemingly important to her to get a picture of them in them together, but to keep the rest separate so that my son feels special on his birthday.

She adds additional context about their family dynamic.

Some things to consider:

My husband’s family is small. Depending on whether his brother gets my son anything, this could be the only presents he opens from that side.

There’s also a deeper aspect to this.

There is a past history of what feels like favoritism. She didn’t get my son anything for his second birthday because “I like shopping for them all year, not just on their birthday,” but then went and got my nephew’s presents on his birthday anyway. So I may be a little bitter from that.

My younger son’s birthday is a week after my nephew’s, so if she’s already gifting him a present, why not my other son too?

I still made a compromise about the shoes, so I feel like I conceded a little to her wishes.

So AITA?

Everyone deserves to feel special on their birthday.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman’s family who is trying to stop her from moving away for her husband’s job.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter doesn’t think her MIL has the best intentions.

This commenter shares their two cents.

This commenter would say something like this.

It’s a no from this reader.

She already gave ground on the shoes, which was more than generous given the history of favoritism.

What this mother did was read between the lines to protect her son’s special day from potentially being overshadowed, which is exactly what any good parent would do.

The nephew’s birthday is seven days away — the gifts can wait.