A Mom's Vent Session Went Viral After Her Family Showed Zero Gratitude For Their Vacation
Her two teens and husband had criticisms for every planning decision she made.
Planning a family trip is like another part-time job. The packing lists, the trips to the store for extra this or that, the scheduling-making — it’s all-encompassing for a parent. Plus, when no one else in the family wants to help out, you’re left to make all the decisions on your own.
Now, imagine begging for input only to be met with crickets and then when the trip actually comes, all your family does is complain about what you planned. For one mom, this is exactly what happened. She posted a now-viral TikTok to vent about her frustrations.
“I'm on a family vacation right now with my two teenagers and my husband. We flew in late last night. We think we got in at like 12:15 a.m. and headed to get a rental car and then got to our Airbnb. And I am frustrated,” Alexis (@a.millennialmama) began.
“So as a mom, I planned everything. I asked for input probably 50 times. Things they wanted to do. Did they have any input on where they want to stay, where they want to eat? Anything. Any input, and everyone just said the same thing. ‘Nope. We're good. Whatever you want, mom. I don't care. Okay. I don't care.’
“Great. Glad I'm planning this vacation for everybody to not care.”
Then, she shares several examples of her family, who gave zero input, criticizing the decisions she did make, putting her down and being general a-holes.
“So, when we got to the rental car counter, the car that I selected would not have fit all our luggage. So ultimately we decided to upgrade, but not without comments about how mom is so cheap and she got a small car and this and that. I got an SUV, but it was like the small SUV. So. it doesn't hold as much. Okay. No problem. We upgrade,” she explained.
Once Alexis and her family arrived at the Airbnb that Alexis booked, her teens and husband couldn’t resist making her feel like sh*t about her choice.
She continued, “We get to the Airbnb and I didn't realize this ... but there are three stories. It's a lot of stairs. I'm not going to lie. It's a lot of stairs and sleeping arrangements are not like perfect-slash-ideal, but they're fine. Everybody has a bed. We're safe. Whatever.”
“‘Oh my God. Mom is never going to be in charge of booking the Airbnb again. She can't even this that and the other,’” she imitated.
“Then this morning, we wake up and it's an urban setting. We live in a very quiet suburban setting and my husband's saying how he barely slept and this and that. And I'm just like, enough!”
Alexis vents, “This is our first day. We're barely here. I have been the only one to put in all the effort in planning this trip. And I know there's videos on mental load, but this is prime time example of me. I'm shouldering the mental load for my entire family and everybody has something to say about it. So, yeah, I'm frustrated. Please pray for me that we can all turn our attitudes around and have a great day.”
After her video gained traction, several TikTok users empathized with Alexis’ story, encouraging her to do something for herself and leave her family to figure it out for themselves.
“Go and do whatever you want to do!! Spa day sounds perfect and take yourself out for fabulous meals!!” one user wrote.
Another said, “Just Irish goodbye one morning, go to brunch alone, hit the spa or a pool and come home after dinner.”
“Girl, I would definitely announce that this my last time planning a family vacation. Next year plan a solo trip,” another said.
After her family took a lashing in the comments, with one user begging her to not come back and make an “apology” video for her family, Alexis made an update video.
“Definitely not an apology video, but I did share with my family that I made the TikTok. I did share with them how they made me feel and we have actually had a really, really great day today,” she said.
“Everyone has had positive attitudes. I've heard a lot of thank yous and my kids have been buying their little side purchases with their own money and not even asking me to pay for it... but they have been really self-sufficient in that space.”
“So I'm grateful that today has been a much better day than yesterday. I also spoke to my husband this morning and very candidly told him how badly my feelings were hurt by all of the comments. So knock on wood. Things stay really good. We are just getting ready and changing for dinner and yeah, that is the update.”
In another video, Alexis came to the defense of her family, noting that she forgives them for their unkindness and knows people make mistakes. Since she was open and honest with them about how they made her feel on that first day of vacation they totally changed their ways.
“My family is human. We make mistakes. We apologize. We move forward. We love each other. This was a learning experience.”
