Mother ‘irritated’ by parents’ complaints after sending them on paid Hawaii vacation

A mother of four has detailed her frustration with her parents after she paid for their trip to Hawaii – only for them to complain about the cost of food.

In a viral “Am I The A**hole” post shared to Facebook, the woman explained that she sent her parents on a vacation to Kauai to thank them for watching her children.

“I sent my parents on a vacation to Kauai as a thank you basically for my mom helping me so much with all of my kids when I had my fourth baby,” she began the post, which has received more than 4,000 comments.

Their five-day island vacation also happened to take place during their 36th wedding anniversary, according to the mother, and she and her husband paid for their “airfare, hotel, and rental car.”

However, the woman claimed that she’s only heard complaints from her parents over the cost of their food since they touched down in Hawaii. “All I’ve pretty much heard from them is how expensive their food is. Not a thank you or even an appreciate [sic] or positive remark,” she wrote.

Alongside the post, she included a screenshot of her messages with her father. In the text exchange, he sent her a photo of the total cost of their restaurant meal, which came to be $104.31.

“Quit your complaining you’re in paradise on a free vacation,” she replied to the photo, to which her dad wrote back: “Our CHEAPEST meal was $40. Pretty much $50-60 everywhere.”

In a cheeky response, the woman said: “Ok then noted I’ll send you to Arkansas for your next trip.”

“A condo would be smarter here, then you could cook a few meals,” her father added.

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Taking to the Facebook forum, she asked whether she was in the wrong for “being so irritated” by the messages from her parents “complaining about the cost of their meals.”

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for fellow Facebook users to share their thoughts on the mother’s frustrated reaction. Some people defended her response and called her parents entitled. One user wrote: “I would feel exactly the same. That is the most entitled, selfish thing I’ve seen in a while. I would be texting non-stop how appreciative I was of that trip. What you did was SO kind. I’m really sorry you are getting this reaction.”

“I wouldn’t be doing it again if all they’re going to do is complain,” another person agreed, while a third commented: “I literally can’t imagine receiving such a nice gift and doing nothing but complaining about it. If they were going to be that concerned you’d think they’d look some things up about food cost and stuff beforehand and politely decline if they didn’t want to spend that money. Ridiculous.”

Others wondered if the price point of the vacation was out of her parents’ price range, and if she had considered whether they could afford going out for meals.

“Yes, this is beyond generous but if they can’t afford to eat while there, that would be pretty crappy,” one person noted.

“Did you ask them before buying the vacay to make sure they could afford the food and whatever else they wanted to do there?” another user asked.

“Can they afford the meals? Or is this really breaking the bank for them?” someone else asked. “If they can afford it, they need to just enjoy and be grateful. If it’s a struggle for them financially, then you could be the a**hole.”