A mother has been defended for offering her handmade flowers to her daughter after her son said he no longer needed them for his own wedding.
In a recent post shared to the popular “Am I The A**hole?” Reddit forum, a woman asked if she was in the wrong for using the flowers for her daughter’s baby shower. She detailed how she initially made the flowers for her son’s wedding, noting that he and his fiancée “were tight on money and upset over the price of flowers”.
She went on to emphasize how expensive the flowers were that her son wanted, before she offered to make fake ones.
“It wasn’t in their budget and they had a very specific image. I looked at prices for what they wanted and it was out of my own budget,” the mother wrote. “I instead offered to do what they wanted with fake flowers. They agreed and sent over images for me to use.”
The woman explained that she spent “over $500 buying all the stuff” to make the flowers on her “own time”. After acknowledging that she thought the flowers “turned out great,” she then revealed how her son and daughter-in-law decided not to use them.
“I got a call [saying] they won’t need them anymore and that they have the money to have real flowers. That they already booked it. So in short all my time was for nothing,” she continued.
According to the Reddit user, she realized that her flowers didn’t have to go to waste when her daughter noticed and complimented them.
“My daughter was over and commented on how cute the flowers were. She asked if I could make her ‘some for her baby shower,’” she added. “I explained what happened and told her she could have them.”
After detailing that the flowers were used for her daughter’s baby shower, specifically placed on the tables at the event, the woman expressed that her son wasn’t happy about this.
“After my son and [daughter-in-law] came up, we got into an argument. They think I am a jerk for using their flowers for someone else’s event and now everyone will think they copied my daughter for their wedding,” she continued.
The woman concluded by noting that she didn’t think it was “a big deal” that she gave the flowers away since she wanted them to be used instead of being thrown out.
The Reddit post has quickly gone viral, with more than 6,600 upvotes. In the comments, many people came to the mother’s defense, explaining that she should be able to give the flowers to whoever she pleases. They also criticized her son for getting upset about the situation, since he chose not to use the flowers even after all the work his mother did to make them.
“You did nothing wrong, and I’m pretty sure they didn’t send you a payment for your time, labor and effort in making all those centerpieces… had a nice time and the couple was completely wrong,” one wrote.
“Very rich of them to call them ‘their flowers’ when not one cent was paid to reimburse mom for her wasted efforts,” another commented. “Also, who the hell is even going to notice they’re the ‘same’ flowers at a wedding taking place weeks later? Who the hell do they think would even care enough to compare? How absurd.”
“It’s baffling that brides (and people organizing similar events in general) honestly believe that the guests notice or care about these kinds of details,” a third wrote, referring to how the couple was upset about the flowers at the baby shower looking similar to the ones at their upcoming wedding. “Everyone else won’t pay any attention to the flowers whatsoever, they will barely even register them as other than ‘green’ and ‘pretty’ and basically the same as all other flowers arrangements they have seen.”
