Real people. Real opinions.
Browse WAURE
← Advice & Questions
AITA · Advice & Questions ·

AITA for telling my partner to choose his own birthday plan after he rejected my suggestions?

AITA category photographAITA

I put the restaurant list away and told my partner, "Choose what you want and I'll arrange it. I'm finished guessing."

His thirtieth birthday was nine days away. He'd asked me to plan a surprise because he was tired of organizing his own celebrations.

Over the previous month I'd suggested a dinner with friends, a picnic and a bowling evening. He said the dinner was predictable, the picnic depended too much on the weather, and bowling wasn't something he particularly liked. Those were fair reasons individually. Then he said he couldn't give me more ideas because that would spoil the surprise.

I hadn't booked anything. I was checking each suggestion because I didn't want to arrange a whole evening he'd dislike. He says those checks turned a surprise into homework.

When I said I was finished guessing, he asked whether I could at least choose between the dinner and picnic. I said that was a choice he could make. He went quiet and later said I'd made him feel demanding for wanting one birthday he didn't have to run.

I offered to handle invitations and the booking once he chose. He wants me to take back the whole plan, including the choice. I want to make the day good, but I'm now more worried about getting it wrong than pleased to do it. AITA for handing that decision back?

Discussion

2 community replies

He asked you to take on uncertainty, then kept judging the early options while withholding useful preferences. A surprise doesn't have to mean no guidance at all. Giving you a few things he genuinely enjoys would still leave plenty he didn't know.

Checking every proposal also meant he was participating in planning despite asking not to. Neither approach was working as intended. You could acknowledge that the process became frustrating for him without accepting that you must now guess perfectly.

Join the discussion

More in AITA