My mom’s birthday is on Friday and between being stuck in the house for so long and family tensions, there’s been some drama.

It all started when my dad added all 5 of us to a group chat and asked if we had any ideas on how to celebrate. My youngest sister (we’ll call her Jade, she’s 10) offered a really good idea - a nice blanket and flowers, but my dad told her it was “too complicated of an idea” and only wanted to have to get a cake.

I thought it was weird and it only got weirder when my dad made another group chat without her, saying that he no longer wanted to include her because “he doesn’t trust her to not blab”. He told my brother that he knew it would hurt her feelings but he didn’t care because he wanted it done his way. I didn’t involve in the conversation because I thought he was being dramatic.

This morning, I asked what his plans were and he told me he didn’t even want to go to the store to get a cake anymore. My mom already was really sad about spending her birthday in the middle of a pandemic so I had ordered decorations earlier in the week to make it special. I explained what I was doing and told him that I wanted him to distract her in another room. He didn’t want to do it and seemed totally uninterested in the idea.

A few hours later, he’s in the group chat, excluding Jade, asking everyone to pick out flowers for her. And he took a shot at my mom saying that we need to keep it cheap otherwise my mom will just be mad at him for spending. 😕I feel bad because this is supposed to be about my mom, not him & his pity party, and I know Jade was excited to celebrate. I feel like he’s only excluding her because he wants to be the one to be doing the most. I don’t get it, we all love her, it’s not a competition 😔