Woman's Birthday 'Ruined' By Boyfriend's Cruel Prank — He Insists It Was Just A Lighthearted Joke
She was humiliated and embarrassed on a day when she should've felt special and loved.
StratfordProductions / Shutterstock A woman admitted that she doesn't know how she will be able to trust her boyfriend moving forward after he ruined her birthday.
Posting to the subreddit r/relationship_advice, the 25-year-old assumed her birthday surprise would be one thing, but it turned out to be something completely different.
She said her boyfriend 'ruined' her birthday with a horrible and cruel prank.
In her Reddit post, she explained that she's been with her fiancé for three years and always considered him a sweet and thoughtful partner. He never did anything that hurt her feelings or made her feel bad about herself, and she genuinely loved him and saw a bright and loving future with him. However, all of that changed.
She admitted that one thing they always talked about was moving into a nice house. She always assumed she'd have a say in the place they would eventually buy together, but he came to her and confided that he'd found the perfect place for them and that it would be her birthday surprise.
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"He then kept telling me he will take me there on my birthday. My birthday came, and he instructed me to wear a blindfold. He drove me to where he said the house was and then helped me out," she recalled. Once she was out of the car, he took her to the spot and counted to three.
Suddenly, she was hit with a water balloon, and as she took off her blindfold, she noticed that there was no house. He'd driven her out and built up this huge surprise when, in reality, the surprise was just some water to the face.
Of course, she didn't take it too well, but he kept arguing that she shouldn't have been this gullible in the first place because she should have realized that he could never afford to buy a house.
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"I asked him to drive me to my parents, but he kept apologizing and saying he didn't know his joke had gone too far. Ultimately, I had to Uber, and I'm at my parents," she continued. Her boyfriend has since texted her continuously, expressing his remorse, but she's unsure if she can ever trust him again.
A "prank" or joke is supposed to be something funny and lighthearted, not something that causes the other person distress. Since a house has been something the two of them have talked about for quite some time, it clearly never crossed her mind that he couldn't afford to buy one or that he would use the dream of one day being a homeowner as the punchline of a rather cruel prank.
It's one thing to do this on any normal day of the year, but on her birthday, when she was expecting something special, it was heartbreaking and disappointing beyond measure.
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People in the comments agreed that her boyfriend was out of line.
"This wasn’t a joke but to humiliate you. An adult would have a conversation that you cannot afford a house right now. To go through [that and] tell you he was taking you to a house, then throw a water balloon at you is very immature and just beyond stupid," one Reddit user wrote. "He is not ready for marriage."
Another user added, "You know what kind of person gets someone’s hopes up just to water balloon them in the face and call them an idiot on their birthday? A person who sucks. He’s shown you who he is; now it’s up to you to decide if you want to stay in a relationship with someone who doesn’t respect you — at all. I’d tell him since he has your permission, he’s allowed to pack his bags and leave."
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A third user chimed in, "That wasn't a prank, that's cruelty. He wanted to knock you down a peg and thought doing it this way would give him an out to be mean and disguise it as a prank. If you feel comfortable, sit down and lay out why this hurt you so he understands and hopefully learns from it but don't stay with someone like this."
At the end of the day, your significant other should be making you feel special and loved on your birthday, not embarrassed and humiliated because of a thoughtless prank.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.