Man ditches baby shower after cousin asks how to avoid 'turning out like him'

Baby showers are supposed to a wonderful celebration of things to come. But for one Reddit user, a recent baby shower for a cousin was anything but. Now, they're asking if they're unreasonable for ditching the party, along with their car full of food, after their cousin started asking how to make sure their child doesn't turn out like them. 

The Reddit user started by explaining how much effort they'd put into the party for their cousin.

"My mother and aunts love to cook so they wanted to gather the ingredients and make a huge dinner themselves. I drove my car and my father drove his, and we basically pushed the shopping carts along and got our credit cards ready while the women shoveled everything they wanted into the carriages."

When the Reddit user arrived, everyone started exchanging pleasantries. But then it got weird. 

"The conversation started off light, but took a weird turn. She asked me how my parents raised me, and specific details like if they grounded me, what kinds of punishment they used, what I did when I was little and what regrets I had as a kid that I would change."

The Reddit user figured they were asking for advice on how to raise their kids, but thought it odd since they were single. But then things just got rude. 

"I ask my cousin why she's asking me all this, and she says, 'I just want to raise my baby better than you.' That made no sense because I never raised any babies. The vibe I got was definitely that it was an insult but on the off-chance she wasn't intentionally being rude."

"I just laughed it off and said, "Well I'm no Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs, but I do alright for," I assumed she meant that she wanted to raise her baby to be better than me, which is fine since parents want the world for their kids."

The Redditor shares how the rest of the conversation went down.   

"Nope, she just kept going. 'Well that's true. Did your parents ever think you'd turn out this way?'

I said, 'Well I think they just wanted me to be happy,'

Her, 'Are you?'

Me, 'Well I'm definitely happy for you, congratulations!' (I'm trying reaaaaaaally hard to steer things away from me).

Her, 'Thanks. Do you ever plan on having kids?'

Me, 'I just gotta find the right person, but until then I'm gonna enjoy life as is. There's no need to stress out wanting something else and taking what we have for granted.'

Her, 'Sure... Well I'm younger than you and I already have a family. Don't wait too long... or else you might ending up dying alone," I ask her directly what she meant. She just laughs, shrugs, and leaves.

"I see her again and she says, 'Don't get angry at me, you're the one who refuses to go out and meet people. If you bothered to leave your house every once in a while maybe you'd have a family of your own by now. I just don't want my baby to end up like you.'"  

As you can imagine, the Redditor was pretty angry at this point, and decided to leave along with the food they'd brought, explaining: 

"Everyone within earshot was dead-silent. I just stared at her for who knows how long and she just ends up rubbing her belly and waddling away."

"I leave, taking my car home and halfway there, I realize half the groceries are still in my car. At this point, I could have driven back and dumped it on the porch buuuuuuuuuuuut I decided screw her. I ignored all calls and texts, and just took a nap."

Commenters seemed to agree that the Redditor wasn't being unreasonable, with one user writing: "Your cousin is a nasty piece of work. I feel sorry for the kid with that mom and her dammed attitude."

While another added: "The worst is she’s probably going to be defended by the other members of the family just because she’s pregnant." 

Another user concluded: "Are you...are you serious? You help pick up stuff for her shower and she immediately turns it into a "let's talk about where your parents went wrong with you" session? Whew. Family..."

While one added: "You didn't drive off with the food purposefully to be nasty, you drove off and didn't bother to go back to give the food. That makes a difference: you weren't revengeful."

"Some pregnant women get real nasty and self-important, thinking they are carrying baby Jesus. (...) Pregnancy is not a free pass to be nasty."

Editor's Note: The article was originally published in November 2019. It has since been updated.