AIO for not wanting my household to pay family friends $85/each for groceries on a 10-day vacation?
I recently got home from a 10 day vacation in the Smokies with my boyfriend, my brother, our dog, some family friends, their baby, and their dog.
Honestly, the whole vacation was frustrating and kind of a mess. I know that traveling with a baby for a little over a week is hard, but they seemed very unprepared. They didn’t bring a stroller, a high chair, toys, etc. The baby also screamed a lot and had a lot of tantrums. We had a lot of things planned, and there was a point before we left where they had wanted us to come over to plan what we were going to do while away but we didn’t have time, so when we got there we got attitude from them relating to how we never came over to discuss what we were planning to do. However, once we were settled and we were going to do things we planned, we weren’t able to, because of the constant tantrums. I completely understand that babies can be unpredictable, but I also feel that some of the difficulties could have been avoided had there been a little more preparation on their end.
There were also just a bunch of little things throughout the trip that started adding up that just made it more frustrating. I bought a collapsible playpen specifically for my dog before the trip so that she had a safe space and couldn’t escape in case someone left a door open, but they ended up using it to make a barrier around the stairs so the baby couldn’t go up them. They didn’t bring a bowl for their dog so they used ours and I had to use a paper plate to feed my dog. We did one thing we wanted to do as a group in the 10 days we were there, but then we did nothing else we had planned on doing because the baby couldn’t do long car rides or wouldn’t throw a fit if they couldn’t do something. It was just a long disappointing experience with so many things that kept adding up.
And then there’s the money. Let me start by saying that we split the cost of the cabin by each person, so that’s split 4 ways, since they are married. On the first day, we went shopping and we didn’t do one big order, we split it by household. So they were on one bill (mom, dad, baby) and we were on a separate bill (my brother, my boyfriend, me). Now that we’re home (and have been for well over a week), they’re asking that my brother, my boyfriend, and I each send them around $85 for groceries/food. Here’s the problem, they went to the store at LEAST twice a day on most days. We ate dinner they made maybe 3 out of 10 days while there, and for breakfast maybe the same amount?
I’m just having a hard time understanding why she kept the receipts and why we’re suddenly being asked to send $85 each when a significant amount of what they purchased was for themselves/baby and when we weren’t keeping track or planning to charge them for everything of ours that they consumed.
I just need to know, AIO? Should I take a financial hit and have my household send them $85? Or are they just being insane?