“AITA? I Went On Vacation With My Friend And Her Family, They Kicked Me Out So I Got My Own Room And Stayed On”
Whenever you think of vacation time, you think of resting in your own special way. So, that’s either lying on the beach, getting the occasional sunburn, or going hiking. Or actually going anywhere other than the location you’re staying at because resorts are boring. Maybe.
But, apparently, a vacation doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time to relax. Take this one family, for instance. The extended group of 8 invited a daughter’s friend, seemingly all-expenses-paid, to vacation with them. What they failed to mention was their expectation that the daughter and her friend would cook for the entire group for the entirety of the vacation. Entirely.
Oh, it gets better. Or worse. Depending on how you look at it.
More Info: Reddit
Whenever you think vacation, you probably think relaxation, right? Well, no, as this one family needs someone to be cooking all the time
Image credits: Calgary Reviews (not the actual image)
Redditor u/imonvacaaation, who introduced herself as a female student, has a roommate, Meg, whose entire family—i.e. the friend, her mother, her father, two of her father’s friends, and her three brothers—invited her to vacation with them.
The family offered to buy her ticket and book a resort for all of them to stay at. Sounds sweet, right? The young woman, in turn, started saving up for some activities while on vacation, and a little bit extra to treat the family to some dinner for being so generous.
But, there had to be a catch, right? There was. A pretty sneaky one, surprisingly.
A woman who was invited to go on vacation with a “traditional” family got the short end of the deal and was “asked” to cook meals for 9 people
Image Credits: u/imonvacaaation
Image credits: leighkrotz (not the actual image)
First off, everyone flew first class. Except for the friend. The friend got economy. But why complain, it’s free, right?
It didn’t stop there. The first night they were there, they all went grocery shopping. Turns out, they wanted to cook all of the meals in-house. And, actually, correction. They wanted their daughter Meg and the OP to cool all of the meals in-house. Yep, all 3 square meals throughout the day, for 9 people. Every day.
You see, Meg’s family is one of those “traditional” ones that believe that a woman’s place is in the kitchen and, unfortunately, Meg and the OP fit that description. The OP admitted to not being a very good cook and only knew a handful of recipes, so she tried her best.
At first, it seemed like they would all have a really good time, but the economy ticket and grocery shopping soon proved otherwise
Image Credits: u/imonvacaaation
However, it did not go well. The dad of the family in turn got livid, and tensions started to skyrocket. But OP was not about to let anyone trample on her, so she told him off. This initiated his entitlement protocol and he blurted out that it was his vacation. Well, it’s OP’s vacation too, or did they invite her to be an unpaid cook?
Some back-and-forth later, the dad snaps and effectively tells OP to pack her stuff and go. No idea how, but she did. First things first though, she figured out that her return ticket was not protected in any way, so she sorted out a password so the family wouldn’t cancel it without her noticing.
But, after just one attempt, some family members snapped at the OP and asked her to leave… but they didn’t specify how or when
Image Credits: u/imonvacaaation
What ended up happening is the OP secured her return ticket that the family bought and booked another room, which upset the family a lot
Image credits: Andrew Thomas (not the actual image)
Then she went to the resort’s front desk and sorted out a surprisingly affordable room, explaining her predicament. They hooked her up, and she still had some money left to do touristy stuff. On her own terms. The only sad part of it all is that this left her roommate stranded with all of the kitchen stuff.
One day, the OP was sightseeing and Meg’s family happened to stumble upon her. They seemed quite surprised that the OP was still around. In fact, they were furious after understanding that the OP would be using their return ticket, having “deceived” them into thinking she couldn’t afford a vacation. Which, when you think about it, is quite evil as they were effectively attempting to leave her stranded here.
And folks were all in support of OP—she wasn’t wrong to do what she did, and got some pretty satisfying revenge (with a dash of malicious compliance) along the way.
But the internet thinks the OP was right here—not only was she in the clear, but she also got some satisfying revenge along the way
Folks online explained that the family was basically holding OP hostage. This is besides the fact that they were treating their daughter’s friend like dirt. And, this was also besides the fact that the roomie did not warn her about this, and folks have a lot of reason to believe she always knew what her family’s intentions were.
But, all in all, folks agreed that she was invited to vacation with them. Hence, she was in no way obligated to feel bad about doing just that. And hence people’s praises for the OP, saying she did the right thing and executed it flawlessly.
Her post got nearly 27,000 upvotes and a bit over 20 Reddit awards for her efforts. You can check out the post, all of OP’s responses in the comments, as well as those of the commenters here. And you can check out our other Am I The A-Hole articles here.
But, eh-eh-eh, not so fast, as we’d like to ask you to pay the commenter’s tax, which is to leave your personal convictions in the form of text regarding the current personal narration from the world wide web in the comment section located in the lower cardinal direction of this virtual page.
This is why you should always have "f*ck off" money. So you can pay your way out of a difficult situation. Well done OP
Well said. You're so right.
100%. Especially with a large group of people that you don't know, when they are in charge of all the arrangements. Of course, you would hope everything goes right, but if it does go wrong and you aren't prepared, you could be in serious trouble. OP was amazing.
At the very least have an emergency credit card or something that can be used.
My Grandma would occasionally refer to her "mad money" stash. I assumed that she meant "go mad money!!! woooo!!!"(some money on hand for if she really wanted something out of budget). When I was a teen she clarified, "No, it's so if you're pissed off you don't have to take anyone's s**t."
Your grandmother is my hero ❤️
I save up money when I go on vacation with my own family, because I was also raised in a pretty fundamental environment and as the black sheep, I never know when I'm going to need to take care of myself, but it's much different because I'm fully aware of my family and what they expect.
Why didn't the 'friend' warn her in advance or have their sexist ways just been drummed into the 'friends' head so much that she just took it for granted that every family acts this way?
That is why OP was third choice. The first female friend who was vetoed probably knew the score, told them to suck it. Friend didn’t tell OP because she was afraid OP wouldn’t attend and and she (friend) would be stuck doing everything on her own.
Yeah, friend probably didn't want to be alone but brainwashed by her a$$hole father to "know her place". I hope he gets stung by a jellyfish.
How sad :(
That daughter should grow a pair and learn how to stand up for herself, unless she enjoys being used as a doormat.
Likely, because she is "only" a girl, she has been brainwashed to believe that it was her place, and that everyone else believes the same. Tell *anyone* a lie often enough, they accept it as Gospel.
She could be so used to it and treated so poorly for so long she didn’t even think it needed to be said. It’s her “normal” and if she can’t speak up for herself in that situation, she definitely can’t do it for someone else.
Probably…
Or she honestly didn't know. She tried to bring a male friend that was rejected. My guess is the second friend wasn't neccessarily just too feisty, but my suspicion is she was too rich and had independent parents, so they knew she wouldn't be stuck. They honestly thought OP would have no choice than to let them bully her into giving in and be the servant. I think her friend didn't think much of it. She probably assumed it was normal and didn't know better. Many people raised in such circumstances don't realise it's not normal. Thus for she didn't know it was something she'd have to tell.
NTA, they failed to clarify duties required and left you in a foreign country not knowing you had any money. Creepy and hateful must be the new traditional family values.
This is why you should always have "f*ck off" money. So you can pay your way out of a difficult situation. Well done OP
Well said. You're so right.
100%. Especially with a large group of people that you don't know, when they are in charge of all the arrangements. Of course, you would hope everything goes right, but if it does go wrong and you aren't prepared, you could be in serious trouble. OP was amazing.
At the very least have an emergency credit card or something that can be used.
My Grandma would occasionally refer to her "mad money" stash. I assumed that she meant "go mad money!!! woooo!!!"(some money on hand for if she really wanted something out of budget). When I was a teen she clarified, "No, it's so if you're pissed off you don't have to take anyone's s**t."
Your grandmother is my hero ❤️
I save up money when I go on vacation with my own family, because I was also raised in a pretty fundamental environment and as the black sheep, I never know when I'm going to need to take care of myself, but it's much different because I'm fully aware of my family and what they expect.
Why didn't the 'friend' warn her in advance or have their sexist ways just been drummed into the 'friends' head so much that she just took it for granted that every family acts this way?
That is why OP was third choice. The first female friend who was vetoed probably knew the score, told them to suck it. Friend didn’t tell OP because she was afraid OP wouldn’t attend and and she (friend) would be stuck doing everything on her own.
Yeah, friend probably didn't want to be alone but brainwashed by her a$$hole father to "know her place". I hope he gets stung by a jellyfish.
How sad :(
That daughter should grow a pair and learn how to stand up for herself, unless she enjoys being used as a doormat.
Likely, because she is "only" a girl, she has been brainwashed to believe that it was her place, and that everyone else believes the same. Tell *anyone* a lie often enough, they accept it as Gospel.
She could be so used to it and treated so poorly for so long she didn’t even think it needed to be said. It’s her “normal” and if she can’t speak up for herself in that situation, she definitely can’t do it for someone else.
Probably…
Or she honestly didn't know. She tried to bring a male friend that was rejected. My guess is the second friend wasn't neccessarily just too feisty, but my suspicion is she was too rich and had independent parents, so they knew she wouldn't be stuck. They honestly thought OP would have no choice than to let them bully her into giving in and be the servant. I think her friend didn't think much of it. She probably assumed it was normal and didn't know better. Many people raised in such circumstances don't realise it's not normal. Thus for she didn't know it was something she'd have to tell.
NTA, they failed to clarify duties required and left you in a foreign country not knowing you had any money. Creepy and hateful must be the new traditional family values.