A mother who spent $4,500 on two Taylor Swift tickets for herself and her daughter was left furious when the teen invited her best friend to come with her instead.
Her story has now launched a massive debate online after claiming that she was so bitter over not attending that she refused to drive the girls to the concert.
The mom, who has only shared her first name, Susan, explained to the radio show Country Mornings with Ayla Brown last week that she wanted to ‘go big’ for her daughter’s 19th birthday.
So she surprised her with two tickets to the 33-year-old popstar’s highly coveted Eras Tour at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on May 20.
A mother who spent $4,500 on two Taylor Swift tickets for herself and her daughter was left furious when the teen invited her best friend to come with her instead
The mom, named Susan, has now launched a massive debate online after claiming that she was so bitter over not attending that she refused to drive the girls to the concert
Susan forked over more than $4,000 on the tickets, and assumed she and her daughter would go together to the show.
But when the 19-year-old said she actually wanted to give the second ticket to one of her longtime friends, the mom was so upset by the news that she decided she would not help them get to and from the stadium.
The girls ended up having to pay $400 in Uber fees – and Susan’s reaction has sparked an intense argument over whether or not she was justified.
While chatting with the Boston-based radio station, Susan recalled the sweet moment that her daughter found out she’d be attending the concert.
She said they both started ‘screaming’ and described it as the ‘greatest’ moment ever. But Susan’s ‘excitement’ soon turned to heartbreak.
‘My daughter turned 19 and I had bought her two tickets, for $4500. I really wanted to go big,’ she explained.
‘I mean, she’s turning 19. Like we’re getting closer as friends, not just mother-daughter.
‘I thought I was going to go. I thought she was going to invite me. But she ended up inviting her best friend.’
Susan explained that her daughter, whose name was not shared for privacy reasons, and the friend, who is named Casey, ‘knew each other since they were little’ and have ‘loved Taylor Swift their whole lives.’ But even so, her daughter’s decision left her ‘so hurt.’
‘It wasn’t until a couple of days that I brought up the concert again and she said something about her best friend, Casey,’ she continued.
‘It stopped me dead in my tracks. God, I was so hurt.’
Susan’s story, which was shared on Facebook by radio show Country Mornings with Ayla Brown shared, seemed to have divided the internet
Susan said her daughter then had the ‘audacity’ to ask her to drive them to the show, but she had already ‘made plans’ with a friend.
The two teens ended up having to pay a bucket load of money on Ubers to and from the concert, and sat in ‘horrendous’ traffic for hours on end – but Susan insisted that she ‘didn’t feel bad.’
‘We were having breakfast the next day and [my daughter] said, “I’ve got to bring something up. I’m kind of upset that you didn’t drive us. I can’t believe it. And it was that much money,”‘ she recalled.
‘I don’t feel bad. I got up and walked back into my room.’
She added that not only did she have no plans to contribute to the cost of her daughter’s transportation, but she was actually considering asking the teen to pay her the $4,500 that she had spent.
‘I’m thinking about asking her to pay me back the $4,500. I just don’t know what to do. I’m really upset. But am I a bad mom?’ she concluded.
Susan’s story, which the radio station shared on Facebook, seemed to have divided the internet – with some branding her daughter as ‘ungrateful’ for not bringing her to the concert and others telling Susan to ‘grow up.’
Many commenters said Susan should have ‘communicated better’ from the start, and made it clear that the tickets were for them both to go together.
‘Sounds like [Susan] needs to learn to communicate better, especially with her own daughter,’ one person wrote.
‘She has no right now to be mad, she didn’t speak up. In return for not speaking up she’s now making this birthday gift something no one will remember fondly except maybe the friend of her daughter that’s not involved in the at home drama. Sad.’
‘Use your big girl words mom. They were a gift from you for you and her… You were the fool that paid that kind of money for the tickets,’ someone else said.
‘But your daughter is an adult, she can pay for her own Uber of that was her choice of travel.’
Susan said the girls ended up having to pay $400 in Uber fees – and her reaction has sparked an intense argument over whether or not she was justified
‘Mom seems to be acting like a teenager here. She should have made clear that the gift was for the two of them to go together rather than just hoping the daughter would invite her,’ another social media user added.
‘She’s 19. She’s thinking of her friends not her mom – that’s normal. She shouldn’t ask for the money back. It was a gift.
‘I also don’t think the mother should be responsible for the daughters Uber, but again that could have been communicated about in advance.’
‘If a 19 year old can’t pay $400 in Ubers and understand the costs, how do you expect them to pay for rent, utilities, car payment, etc. in their 20s once they graduate college and have a job?’ a different user asked.
‘We have created a world of entitled kids and parents whose feelings get hurt cause they don’t want to hang with them but will shell out thousands of dollars.’
‘Gifts aren’t meant to have strings attached. A gift with strings attached is not a gift,’ a fifth comment read.
‘You can’t develop expectations in your head after giving a gift, not communicate this with the other person, and then expect them to read your mind and get mad when they don’t.
‘That’s not how it works, and that’s not the point of a gift. You give a gift without any expectations in return. If you expect something after giving a gift, you’re adding strings to a gift when you shouldn’t be.’
A sixth said: ‘You bought the tickets to make your daughter happy. You should have told her the plan from the beginning. Don’t hold it against her. Be a GROWN UP.’