Mom Gives Her Kid a Gift at Another Child's Birthday Party and Redditors Are Not Happy About It

Every parent wants to be sure their child has the happiest, most festive birthday possible, but it is possible to take that mission a bit too far. That appears to have been the case for a mom on Reddit who wondered if she's a jerk for presenting her daughter with a fancy gift—at a friend's birthday party.

The Redditor, writing under the handle u/throwrafamproblems, shared that her daughter Stephie turned 9 on Saturday and had been asking for a Switch for a while. "The plan was always to give Stephie the Switch at her birthday party, which was the same day," wrote the original poster (OP). "However, that ended up falling through. We ended up not being able to pick up the Switch until Sunday morning."

And Sunday morning, Stephie was headed to her classmate Jolene's birthday party. "So I figured that since we were still in the party spirit, I would just give Stephie the Switch after cake at Jolene's party," explained the OP. "Nothing more than that. Just the unwrapping and then the spotlight would be right back on Jolene. Besides, the girls are friends so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal. They're 9, they're old enough to understand this was an extenuating circumstance."

Although the OP thought everything had gone as planned and "it went well," she got a call from Jolene's mom after the fête, and she asked the OP "what the hell she was thinking." She said the OP "was 'undermining' her because she couldn't afford something like a Switch for Jolene."

The Redditor continued, "Jolene's mom also called me petty and a show-off. Husband says he gets where I was coming from, but maybe should have at least waited until after Jolene's presents were opened so she could have hers first."

She then asked the community if she was the a**hole here.

Redditor u/Monkeyruler164 wrote, "Why would you do this at another girl's birthday party? Why couldn't you do this at home with just your daughter? I can't imagine bringing a gift to someone else's party and making it about you and your daughter."

Redditor u/ttashko noted, "Yeah, she just 'borrowed' the festive atmosphere! WTF was she thinking! So self-absorbed and entitled that she doesn't even see what an a-hole she is."

And u/inesmayor pointed out that even if it had been a less pricey gift, the OP's actions would have been just as disrespectful. "If the gift is not in time, you talk to your daughter about it and give it to her at home, not at other girl's party, and of course not after the cake."

Here's hoping this thread serves as a PSA to any parent who would think to repeat the OP's eyebrow-raising move. The bottom line: Save your child's gifts for your own private time together.