Mom refuses to take 5-year-old daughter to her surprise birthday bash for a reason —and the internet agrees

Parents often go the extra mile to protect their children from any sort of harm. Similarly, a mother recently decided to skip a surprise birthday party for her 5-year-old daughter Cleo because the entire theme was centered around pink, a color that her daughter dislikes. The 33-year-old mother–who goes by u/DaughterPartyThrow on Reddit–shared the complete story on the platform. "She has disliked the color and almost everything to do with it since she was about three or so," she explained in her post. "She has one pink shirt she likes and one pink stuffed animal, and that's it."

Despite this, her father’s partner, Prue, had continuously ignored Cleo’s preferences. "Over the years, she’s made several attempts to push the color onto her," the mother added. Prue would insist that Cleo should "try different shades," even though she wasn’t interested. A week ago, her father invited the family for dinner, saying he and Prue had a "surprise" for the kids. Just before they left, her younger sister, who still lives with their father, sent a text revealing that "the 'surprise' was actually a small birthday party Prue had planned for Cleo."

"That alone threw me off because my daughter's birthday was in November," the mother wrote. Then, her sister sent photos of the decorations. "Literally every piece of decor was pink. The table, the tableware, the balloons, everything," she elaborated. 

"She had gotten pink banners and glued pink foil fringe curtains on the doors. Even the cake was pink." After seeing this, she and her husband decided not to attend. Instead, she sent her father a message sharing that her sister told her everything: "We’re taking the kids to McDonald's and telling them that was your surprise; you and Prue can come if you want; we’re paying." Her father arrived at McDonald’s alone but stayed only briefly. Later, she learned that both her father and Prue were upset.

"My father is angry that my husband and I dismissed his partner’s ‘heartfelt gesture’ towards our daughter," she wrote. Prue also told the mother that Cleo was "restrictive," as she also didn't like pink and was raising Cleo to be an "ungrateful, spoiled brat who is unwilling to compromise."

Reactions within the family were divided. "My sister and one of my brothers are on my side (though my sister did say I had been rude). My other brother is on the fence," she explained. The post gained a lot of attention and many took the mother's side.

u/Affectionate_Big8239 wrote, "Prue seems off balance. A birthday party two months late is bizarre on its own. The insistence on everything pink sounds really like some sort of issue she’s got that she should work through. Did she not have children of her own? Is your daughter seen as some sort of ‘do over’ child? It’s all a little weird, even without the obsession with the color pink."

u/buttercupgrump added, "Prue is the only spoiled brat I see here. It’s honestly pathetic she’s that obsessed with forcing pink upon your daughter. Tell her and your dad to kick rocks." u/PangolinCharm said, "Is this really a battle worth fighting? Kids are honest, Cleo can let Prue know what she likes. Otherwise, it’s a mountain out of a molehill." u/MelodyJ20 shared, "I’m the same way as Cleo, and I'm turning 27 tomorrow. I’ve hated the color pink for as long as I can remember. Just because you’re a woman does not mean that your favorite color has to be pink."