A mother has been defended for offering handmade flowers to her daughter after her son said he no longer needed them for his own wedding.
In a recent post shared on the popular “Am I the Asshole?” On the Reddit forum, a woman asked if she had made a mistake in 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 her fiancée “were short of money and upset about the price of the flowers.”
She continued to emphasize how expensive the flowers her son wanted were, before offering to make fake flowers.
“It wasn't in their budget and they had a very specific image. “I looked at the prices of what they wanted and it was out of my budget,” the mother wrote. “Instead, I offered to do whatever they wanted with artificial flowers. They agreed and sent me images to use.”
The woman explained that she spent “over $500 buying all the things” 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 received a call [saying] that they will no longer need them and that they will have money to have real flowers. That they already reserved it. In short, all my time was wasted,” he continued.
According to the Reddit user, she realized her flowers didn't have to go to waste when her daughter noticed them and complimented them.
“My daughter came and commented how pretty the flowers were. “She asked me if she could make 'some for her baby shower,'” she added. “I explained to her what happened and told her she could keep 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 was not happy with this.
“After my son and [daughter-in-law] came up, we got into an argument. “They think I’m an idiot for using her flowers for someone else’s event and now everyone will think they copied my daughter for her wedding,” she continued.
The woman concluded by noting that she didn't think it was a “big deal” to give away the flowers, as she wanted them to be used instead of thrown away.
The Reddit post quickly went viral, with more than 6,600 upvotes. In the comments, many people came to her mother's defense, explaining that she should be able to give the flowers to whoever she wanted. They also criticized her son for being upset by the situation, since he chose not to use the flowers despite all the work her mother did to make them.
“You didn't do anything wrong and I'm pretty sure they didn't send you any payment for your time, work and effort in making all those centerpieces… you had a great time and the couple was completely wrong,” one wrote.
“Very rich of them to call them 'their flowers' when not a penny was paid to reimburse mom for her wasted efforts,” another commented. “Plus, who the hell is going to notice that they are the 'same' flowers at a wedding that's taking place weeks later? Who the hell do you think would care enough to compare? “How absurd.”
“It's baffling that brides (and people who host similar events in general) honestly believe that guests notice or care about these types of details,” a third wrote, referring to how the couple was upset because the flowers on the baby shower looked like those at their upcoming wedding. “Everyone else won't pay attention to the flowers at all, barely registering them as anything other than 'green' and 'pretty' and basically the same as every other flower arrangement they've seen.”
