In theory, joint birthday parties are supposed to be a collaborative effort.

Folks brainstorm, formulate a plan, and share expenses to honor the folks who are turning a year older.

But what happens when one person decides they don’t want to help pay for a party?

And what if that person happens to be a parent of one of the special guests?

You can probably understand why that wouldn’t always go over so well.

In today’s story, a woman got real about why she decided to cancel a birthday dinner after someone didn’t want to pull their weight.

Check out what they had to say.

AITA for cancelling birthday dinner?

“Around 4 weeks ago my nephew M14 asked me if he could have his birthday dinner at my house.

I said yes, he also asked me if him and my son could join their birthdays together.

I said yes, as long as m18 agreed, which he did.

M14 said that he would like to make a homemade mud cake with m18, and if he would like pizza for dinner, m18 agreed to all.

I sat down with m14 parents and made arrangements.

They had it all worked out!

They agreed to pay for all ingredients for cake, as I was holding the dinner at mine.

We agreed on going half with buying dinner.

Two days before the birthday dinner, m14’s mother informed me she didn’t have any money for the cake, I told her that I had my half of the money for the birthday dinner but didn’t have money for the cake.

M14’s father messages me and informs me he only worked 3 days and his money went to accommodation.

This sounds kind of odd…

I told him that they had 4 weeks in which to save, a week before I had looked after their 2 children, so they could go 4 hours away to a concert, they stayed in accommodation over night.

And the day they were meant to pick up the kids, I found out they went to the zoo.

I told m14’s father that they had 4 weeks in which to organize to save money (he works, she get payments for kids, cares for kids, he get cares for wife, she gets child support for mr 14).

No one wants to put up with this…

I told him we would have to cancel as I was not will to foot the bill for all of the dinner and cake.

M14 father tells me they would pay me back the following Tuesday.

I told him that was not an option as they still owe my mother in law over $2,000 and they still us money for water and electricity from doing washing and drying at our house.

I’m now feeling like a jerk as I wouldn’t for pay for all of dinner and cake.

Please help.”

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a kind man who helped a friend pack up items to donate, then realized she wanted to take back her “payment.”

Reddit users shared their thoughts.

This person weighed in.

Another individual shared their thoughts.

This Reddit user spoke up.

And this reader thinks they all SUCK.

Well, this is a tough one.

And maybe it would be better if she thought of the kids before she tried to prove a point about money.

But the decision is hers, and it sounds like she’s already made up her mind!

Joint birthday parties aren’t always a good idea…