Even the most mundane family plans can turn into power struggles when expectations aren’t aligned.

But when he suggested waiting for a dinner deal, his sister-in-law responded with drama, accusations, and hungry children as pawns.

Was he right to be upset, or was he being unreasonable?

You’ll want to read on for the full story.

AITA for calling out my sister in law for using her children to emotionally manipulate me into going to dinner “now” instead of waiting 45 minutes?

I am 32 and my spouse is 29. My spouse and their family (parents, sister, her kids) were hanging out.

I was doing some chalk art with the kids while my spouse caught up with everyone.

We had a very light lunch and some snacks for everyone to graze on while hanging out.

But when they started coordinating dinner times, communication fell apart.

The time for dinner started to approach, and my sister-in-law brought up heading down for dinner.

I said that it was only 5:15 and we should wait until 6:00.

She said she would like to go now.

I said we should just wait and go at 6 because I had a coupon and there would be deals to make the meal much cheaper. The difference would be from an estimated $175 to under $75. We had already offered to pay for dinner before they arrived.

His sister-in-law registered her distaste, then made sure he knew others were on his side.

My sister-in-law grumbled about it and went to check on the kids and their chalk stuff.

I didn’t think 45 minutes would be such a big deal.

But a few minutes later, the kids—who were fine a few minutes ago—came to the patio and were dramatically clutching their stomachs and saying, “I’m soooooo hungry.”

In his eyes, this was just foul play.

This annoyed me.

I don’t like it when people use their kids to emotionally manipulate others. I think it’s pathetic.

My MIL and FIL were easily swayed and said, “Oh, well, let’s just get ready and head down anyway, it’ll be fine.”

I looked at my spouse, and they said we could just wait, but their sister said no and started to get the kids ready to go out.

So he decides to call her out.

I was super annoyed at this, and while the kids ran inside, I turned to her and said, “Using your children to emotionally manipulate people into getting your way is pathetic.”

She said, “Everyone is hungry, just get over it. If you couldn’t afford to pay for dinner, then you shouldn’t have offered.”

Now he wonders if it was the right approach.

I do get she has a point that we offered, but is asking for just 45 minutes seriously that big of a deal to have her try to use her kids like that?

I would think most family would want to help each other save a little money.

AITA?

What was meant to be a generous gesture ended up dissolving into frustration and tension.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter offers a solution.

Maybe she should give her sister-in-law the benefit of the doubt.

Someone else should be dealing with sister-in-lawzilla.

The person offering to pay should have the freedom to choose what time dinner is.

Her reaction was more about control than hunger.

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.