Parents Get Deserved Punishment For Not Appreciating Their Daughter When She Goes No-Contact
Interview With AuthorA birthday is a special kind of holiday. Almost any other day has cakes and gifts involved, but no day is as unique as a birthday. I just think there’s something about a birthday, some je ne sais quoi in making a person feel – especially if life has been unkind to them recently – like this whole day is about them and that they are the person that really matters.
With all that said, today’s story is a bit on the sad side with a woman venting her frustrations to her parents about oh so many bad cakedays.
More info: Reddit
A birthday is the one day someone should truly feel special, valued, and, most importantly, good
Image credits: Conall (not the actual photo)
This poster took it online to vent her frustrations and ask whether she was too harsh with her parents
Image credits: tortugatramposa
Image credits: Michaela Pereckas (not the actual photo)
The poster was never enough, her parents treating her cousin as their golden child and since their birthdays almost overlap, the poster’s b-days are forgotten
Image credits: tortugatramposa
Image credits: Seth Schoen (not the actual photo)
The poster was promised her own Oreo cake for the occasion of her 18th birthday and was excited for the date
Image credits: tortugatramposa
The parents didn’t come through and once again the cousin was their favorite and after 15 years of the same, the poster cussed them out and stormed out
Image credits: tortugatramposa
In an update, the poster revealed she was done putting up with her parents and went no-contact with them and the rest of her toxic family
If you’re saying “that was sucky” after reading that, then we both ended up on the same page. One saving grace of the story is that the cousin is super nice to the poster, tortugatramposa, with them going out to celebrate after walking out of the party and getting that Oreo cake that she should’ve gotten.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, abuela simply means grandmother among speakers of Spanish, while a quinceañera is a special celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday, with roots in Mexico and Spain. It apparently marks the transition from childhood to womanhood and historically girls would be prepared for their future roles as wives before it, then presented to potential suitors by the girl’s father.
The poster has gone no-contact with her parents since then, living with her cousin and looking for a job. As it stands, the conclusion is sad, but at the same time, perhaps the best course of action for the woman, with parents who always looked down upon her and compared her to the cousin.
Birthdays are a kind of standout holiday though, right? Our other holidays celebrate various occasions, the birth of Christ, his resurrection, the achievements of workers, all sorts of things. But a birthday is a holiday just for you. On this day, you were (and let’s not think about the graphic detail) born and that’s it.
Turns out the holiday originally stems from ancient Egyptian tradition. In ancient Egypt, the calendar was divided into 12 months of 30 days and a thing known as an “intercalcary month” of 5 days, to come as close as possible to the 365 days of the solar year. During this month, the b-days of Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis, and Nephthys were celebrated.
And when a pharaoh was crowned, he became a god; not one of the Gods, but a deity nonetheless. Therefore, the day of his crowning was considered his birth as a god, and duly celebrated.
Image credits: Marta Schoenle (not the actual photo)
I guess life was a little sadder before calendars, as people didn’t have a way to track the exact day a person was born, so they just went around in ignorance (I imagine they were moping).
As for more birthday traditions, cake was a thing in ancient Rome, made of flour, nuts, yeast, and honey. They were for birthdays of famous male citizens, while women’s birthdays apparently weren’t celebrated until the 12th century.
And then we’ve got the candles, who could forget the candles? They were first placed on cakes by the ancient Greeks, who put them there in honor of their goddess Artemis, ruler of the Moon. It’s argued that these candles represented the pale glow of the moon. Let’s not forget that cakes are circular – just like the moon.
In the 18th century, the cake transformed into the more modern variant we have today. It was in Germany that people started celebrating kids’ birthdays at “kinderfeste”, from the word kinder meaning kids. The kids got a candle for each year they had been on this earth for, but I think we’ve got it cooler than them, because we can flaunt candles that shoot flames and say “22” instead of sticking in loads of them in one poor cake.
If I ever make it to 100, I’d definitely like a cake with 100 candles. No one will be able to tell me “oh, but that’s more candles than cake” or “oh, but that’s a tremendous fire hazard” because people will have to finally respect me, their elder.
Image credits: Dov Harrington (not the actual photo)
But enough daydreaming for now, let’s return to reality. Bored Panda reached out to the author of this story and she graciously answered some questions for us.
The poster’s cousin has brought the situation to her parents once, but she says that her family pretty much gaslit her into thinking nothing bad was happening, as she never complained herself.
As her family wouldn’t put in the bare minimum for her birthdays, she relied on herself to celebrate them properly: “I’d celebrate them by getting a HUGE Oreo cake, celebrating with my cousin, little brother, and friends, and finally getting myself gifts.”
If you’re stuck in a similarly difficult situation, the poster suggests that you should stand up for yourself – don’t let them demean you and treat you like a punching bag, which her family did psychologically and physically. She waited too long to do it, but she’s finally happy, having gotten out of the situation and that her parents can’t do anything about it.
Besides cutting off her family with her cousin, there haven’t been any updates to the story.
The poster’s sad story got more than 7k upvotes and 800 comments, who judged her not to be a jerk. People correctly ascertained that it’s not about the cake at all, but rather the neglect and her cousin always being a golden child.
Share your thoughts about this story and birthday traditions in the comments below!
The community judged her to be not a jerk and consoled her for going through all of this
653Kviews
Share on FacebookOMG! This was hard to read. That poor young woman. I'm glad she has her cousin and little brother. I hope she cuts her parents off. She mentioned going NC with some family. Her parents are horrific people.
The mother said: I can’t believe you’re mad I didn’t get you a damn cake. You didn’t need it anyways. The reply to that: Like I don’t need a damn mother anyways?
Load More Replies...The mention of African-American heritage versus a blonde does lead one to an obvious conclusion, subconscious or otherwise.
Yes I agree it’s probably a factor. My parents are obsessed with my blonde green eyed oldest daughter but they all but ignore her younger sister and brother who are half Asian.
Load More Replies...I'm kind of surprised cousin actually stepped up for her. Normally these stories the one getting all the attention is a spoiled brat. But I do wonder why she never spoke up sooner.
Honestly, I think the cousin was scared of getting yelled at by the entire family
Load More Replies...This is so sad. I'm a baker. Had I known OP and her family I'd conspired with her lovely Cousin and made her a huge Oreo cake that the cousin could have carried out first, singing for her and the way OP described her cousin she'd done that too. I might have gone all out and made her something like my wedding cakes. Three tiered, lots of flowers and sparklers. I'd just made it covered in sparkly, colourful lusterdust and put a lookalike figurine of OP right on top.
Bruh, I seriously teared up reading your comment. Imagine how many pounds of pain that would have lifted off her shoulders! I want that for her so much.
Load More Replies...I have a hispanic friend who goes through the same thing with her family, she says it's common in hispanic communities to treat girls in the family this way. There's one disney princes favorite that everyone dotes on, the rest are the losers of the family beauty/success pagent. Her description, not mine.
This is so ironic! You'd think, as Hispanics who are treated poorly as a group because they're BROWN, that they would make sure to celebrate the qualities that make her unique. Instead, the family is treating the blonde as special, feeding into stereotypes.
Load More Replies...I understand this SO much. When I was younger, I would hang out with my aunt Glenda (mother's bro's wife) and thought she was the coolest aunt ever. But when I hit the teenage years, she started comparing me with with my cousin, "Misha". "Why can't you dress better, more like Misha?" "Misha did X, Misha did Y..." (I was quite tomboyish and only discovered my girly style in my forties.) One day as we were looking at photos, Glenda stopped on a pic of Misha and said, "Misha is your uncle's favourite niece." Of course, I resented Misha even before this, but that really made me hate her. And she had never done anything to me! We're just totally different people, and while that would be fine with me, Glenda's infernal comparisons with Misha (literally, if she took me and my bro somewhere, she'd make sure to tell us afterwards that if she'd been with Misha she would have had a better time) made it impossible for me to have a relationship with Misha without resentment creeping in.
It’s fixed favoritism. I’m dealing with that with my children and their grandparents. They want oldest over every weekend, take her in special outings, gave her things like new laptop, iPhone Apple Watch, shopping sprees for clothes and none of this was even for birthday, her younger sister just had a birthday and they gave her a 10$ beach towel and a coloring book and hung around 20minutes, they didn’t even come to their grandson’s birthday and just gave me money to pick out a gift…now they’re talking about throwing my oldest a big birthday at their house with her friends, NOT happening. My oldest is blonde and has green eyes and my younger two children are half Asian. I feel sick thinking that could be a factor in this. And it REALLY harms the sibling bond and the favorite child gets entitled and argumentative and the not favorites get resentful. So wrong
Load More Replies...I understand this and I’m so sorry they kept opening these wounds so they didn’t heal. I have a twin sister (fraternal) and I’m NOT the favorite. I stopped celebrating my birthday at 13 because I was tired of my sister and her friends bullying me to the point I considered suicide and they were always at “our” birthday. Like you it was never the meal,cake, theme I wanted and while we usually got similar presents she’d take mine a few weeks later anyway because she ruined her stuff carelessly. I couldn’t get away, same class at school, same cabin at camp, forced to do ballet and other activities instead of sports my sister didn’t like because my mom’s not “driving to two places.” We shared a room till 14 until my sister demanded my dad give up his study and my parents bought her all new stuff and Reno’d the room while I had same stuff since infancy. When we moved the promised I could get my new room done but nope, my sister without permission (continued in reply)
Painted the walls of her new room dark purple and navy blue and got it all over carpet sooooo instead of being punished she got her room renovated to her liking again and mine never happened. I got mad at myself so many times for getting my hopes up, I should have learned. No matter what my sister said or did my mom would wipe it all away with “well you were BOTH wrong/unkind” NO! That DOES NOT apply when she did 97% of the wrong! My breaking point weirdly was when my sister got a brand new package of underwear and my mother reached into her drawer for her old worn out ones and stuffed them into my drawer. I begged for new underwear and cried angrily but I knew, I KNEW I wasn’t even worth a 4$ pack of underwear. I slid into depression that lasted decades. I finally cut all contact with her last year. I’m 42. Non stop guilt tripping from family about getting along and moving on for the sake of the family…am I not also family?
Load More Replies...I have 6 kids and 3 birthday months. That means, in January, October and August, we have 2 birthdays. We share birthdays. 1 day for both children. But we have 1 big cake with both names and 2 smash cakes, one for each child with their name on it, bought or made in their favorite flavor. We sing to both children and all cakes include the child's age. We have games based on each child. I don't have a lot of money, so gifts are prizes won for the games and each child "wins" a prize, regardless of how I have to do it. I see no reason why even money should make it ok to exclude one child.
NTA. That family realationship is f****d. Also, I would like to see Ur art <3
I'm so sorry T'Mar. You and your cousin are different people. We are all different people. I'm so sorry you were compared to her. I hope you no longer have contact with the aunt.
OMG! This was hard to read. That poor young woman. I'm glad she has her cousin and little brother. I hope she cuts her parents off. She mentioned going NC with some family. Her parents are horrific people.
The mother said: I can’t believe you’re mad I didn’t get you a damn cake. You didn’t need it anyways. The reply to that: Like I don’t need a damn mother anyways?
Load More Replies...The mention of African-American heritage versus a blonde does lead one to an obvious conclusion, subconscious or otherwise.
Yes I agree it’s probably a factor. My parents are obsessed with my blonde green eyed oldest daughter but they all but ignore her younger sister and brother who are half Asian.
Load More Replies...I'm kind of surprised cousin actually stepped up for her. Normally these stories the one getting all the attention is a spoiled brat. But I do wonder why she never spoke up sooner.
Honestly, I think the cousin was scared of getting yelled at by the entire family
Load More Replies...This is so sad. I'm a baker. Had I known OP and her family I'd conspired with her lovely Cousin and made her a huge Oreo cake that the cousin could have carried out first, singing for her and the way OP described her cousin she'd done that too. I might have gone all out and made her something like my wedding cakes. Three tiered, lots of flowers and sparklers. I'd just made it covered in sparkly, colourful lusterdust and put a lookalike figurine of OP right on top.
Bruh, I seriously teared up reading your comment. Imagine how many pounds of pain that would have lifted off her shoulders! I want that for her so much.
Load More Replies...I have a hispanic friend who goes through the same thing with her family, she says it's common in hispanic communities to treat girls in the family this way. There's one disney princes favorite that everyone dotes on, the rest are the losers of the family beauty/success pagent. Her description, not mine.
This is so ironic! You'd think, as Hispanics who are treated poorly as a group because they're BROWN, that they would make sure to celebrate the qualities that make her unique. Instead, the family is treating the blonde as special, feeding into stereotypes.
Load More Replies...I understand this SO much. When I was younger, I would hang out with my aunt Glenda (mother's bro's wife) and thought she was the coolest aunt ever. But when I hit the teenage years, she started comparing me with with my cousin, "Misha". "Why can't you dress better, more like Misha?" "Misha did X, Misha did Y..." (I was quite tomboyish and only discovered my girly style in my forties.) One day as we were looking at photos, Glenda stopped on a pic of Misha and said, "Misha is your uncle's favourite niece." Of course, I resented Misha even before this, but that really made me hate her. And she had never done anything to me! We're just totally different people, and while that would be fine with me, Glenda's infernal comparisons with Misha (literally, if she took me and my bro somewhere, she'd make sure to tell us afterwards that if she'd been with Misha she would have had a better time) made it impossible for me to have a relationship with Misha without resentment creeping in.
It’s fixed favoritism. I’m dealing with that with my children and their grandparents. They want oldest over every weekend, take her in special outings, gave her things like new laptop, iPhone Apple Watch, shopping sprees for clothes and none of this was even for birthday, her younger sister just had a birthday and they gave her a 10$ beach towel and a coloring book and hung around 20minutes, they didn’t even come to their grandson’s birthday and just gave me money to pick out a gift…now they’re talking about throwing my oldest a big birthday at their house with her friends, NOT happening. My oldest is blonde and has green eyes and my younger two children are half Asian. I feel sick thinking that could be a factor in this. And it REALLY harms the sibling bond and the favorite child gets entitled and argumentative and the not favorites get resentful. So wrong
Load More Replies...I understand this and I’m so sorry they kept opening these wounds so they didn’t heal. I have a twin sister (fraternal) and I’m NOT the favorite. I stopped celebrating my birthday at 13 because I was tired of my sister and her friends bullying me to the point I considered suicide and they were always at “our” birthday. Like you it was never the meal,cake, theme I wanted and while we usually got similar presents she’d take mine a few weeks later anyway because she ruined her stuff carelessly. I couldn’t get away, same class at school, same cabin at camp, forced to do ballet and other activities instead of sports my sister didn’t like because my mom’s not “driving to two places.” We shared a room till 14 until my sister demanded my dad give up his study and my parents bought her all new stuff and Reno’d the room while I had same stuff since infancy. When we moved the promised I could get my new room done but nope, my sister without permission (continued in reply)
Painted the walls of her new room dark purple and navy blue and got it all over carpet sooooo instead of being punished she got her room renovated to her liking again and mine never happened. I got mad at myself so many times for getting my hopes up, I should have learned. No matter what my sister said or did my mom would wipe it all away with “well you were BOTH wrong/unkind” NO! That DOES NOT apply when she did 97% of the wrong! My breaking point weirdly was when my sister got a brand new package of underwear and my mother reached into her drawer for her old worn out ones and stuffed them into my drawer. I begged for new underwear and cried angrily but I knew, I KNEW I wasn’t even worth a 4$ pack of underwear. I slid into depression that lasted decades. I finally cut all contact with her last year. I’m 42. Non stop guilt tripping from family about getting along and moving on for the sake of the family…am I not also family?
Load More Replies...I have 6 kids and 3 birthday months. That means, in January, October and August, we have 2 birthdays. We share birthdays. 1 day for both children. But we have 1 big cake with both names and 2 smash cakes, one for each child with their name on it, bought or made in their favorite flavor. We sing to both children and all cakes include the child's age. We have games based on each child. I don't have a lot of money, so gifts are prizes won for the games and each child "wins" a prize, regardless of how I have to do it. I see no reason why even money should make it ok to exclude one child.
NTA. That family realationship is f****d. Also, I would like to see Ur art <3
I'm so sorry T'Mar. You and your cousin are different people. We are all different people. I'm so sorry you were compared to her. I hope you no longer have contact with the aunt.
































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