Family Feuds·
THIRSTY AT DINNER
During a birthday dinner, a sister's habit of hinting for a drink collides with family expectations, leaving the table debating whether she should have been served without asking.
Should family have ordered the drink anyway?
Be one of the first to vote.
On a birthday dinner meant to be simple and celebratory, one woman ended up accused of "letting" her sister go thirsty.
The poster says their sister has a long habit of refusing to ask for things directly. If she wants the AC on, she does not just say so. Instead, she drips out hints like, "Oh, isn't it super warm in here?", "Does anyone else feel really hot?", and "I heard that today is a super hot day!" If someone finally asks whether she wants the AC turned on, she waves it off: "No, no, I'm good! But if *you're* hot then you should turn it on!"
That pattern came back during a family meal last weekend, when the poster's birthday brought everyone out to celebrate.
Somewhere in the middle of dinner, the sister started doing the same thing with drinks. According to the poster, she kept tossing out comments that suggested she wanted another cocktail, but she never actually ordered one. At one point, the waitress came by and asked if they needed anything. This was the chance to say it plainly. The sister still did not order a drink.
Everyone else at the table did.
The poster says they could tell the sister was getting agitated, but they ignored it because it was the poster's birthday and they did not want to turn the evening into something else. The dinner went on, the checks were settled, and everyone went home.
That is when the complaint landed.
Back at home, the sister got snippy and said it was "super rude" that everyone had gotten their own drinks and nobody had ordered one for her. The poster and their brother reminded her that she had been asked by the waitress and had said no. The sister said that was not the point.
Her argument was that the family should have known to order her a drink anyway, since everyone else got one. In her view, they had "let" her go thirsty through the meal. She said that in the future, they ought to order her drinks too, because when she said no to the waitress, it was only because her family should have "taken care of her", her words, not mine.
Now the three of them have been arguing back and forth over whether the sister was being overlooked or whether she had simply declined when asked. The poster is left asking the same question at the center of the whole scene: should they have ordered her a drink, too?