Birthdays are supposed to be happy. As a kid, your birthday is essentially the biggest day of the year (other than possibly Christmas morning). Even as you get older and birthdays start to matter less, it’s still an occasion to celebrate, right?

Sadly, not everyone is so lucky. Some poor souls don’t have the best people around them, and their birthdays end up getting ruined. These Reddit users were brave enough to share their sad birthday stories with the rest of us.

1. Ouch

Worst birthday was the 23rd for me.

Invited small friend circle only, to spent some time at my apartment with food, cake and drinks … later on we would make a local pub tour.

One friend arrived with some booze as present. The two of us spent most time alone because only 3 hours later the other invited guests arrived. The later guests were all drunk – really drunk – but they were all close friends of me. Nevertheless all the drunks did was eating the cake and vomit into the bathroom. After they were done with their exorcism, they left due to their conditions.

I was left with 2 friends which I invited to an all you can drink for free local pub tour.

2. V-day

My birthday is on Valentine’s day.

The day before my 23rd birthday my (now ex) boyfriend of 5 years gave me this hideous Swarovski necklace and then dumped me. I was a server at the time, and spent my actual birthday trying not to cry my eyes out/slobber into everyone’s food as I spent my night serving lovey-dovey couples. I threw the necklace in the trash. (I would have sold it, but it was going for less than store value on eBay & amazon.)

3. I’d have asked for her half

My family paid for me and my girlfriend at the time to go out for a really expensive meal for my 21st birthday.

The entire meal came to $300.

She broke up with me as I was driving her back home.

4. LOL

On my 21st birthday, a family friend who is an old lady invited me and my family to a dinner with her and her family, because by the Lunar calendar her birthday was on the same day as mine.

Her family and my parents can all speak Cantonese. I cannot.

They decided to go to a seafood restaurant. I am allergic to most seafoods. I spent my 21st birthday sitting at a table full of people not saying anything and not eating anything, because I couldn’t do either.

5. Lol, kids

Got extremely sunburnt on my back/shoulders at a water park a few days before my 5th (I think) birthday party

Spent my party face down on a leather sofa crying my eyes out/sulking as roughly 20+ kids ran around in my garden enjoying a water fight party.

6. First world problem

It was my 30th birthday, and my wife and I were going to be house/dog sitting for my father the next day. My father and his wife were flying out the next morning at 6am, so the birthday celebrations were just a quiet dinner out, then early to bed. At around 4pm my dad’s wife cancelled dinner, but we still went over so I could have a look at the new hot water heater, as it had been acting up.

My birthday is a week before Christmas, so we also brought over some gifts for family members we don’t see often. This caused my dad’s wife to flip out and start arguing with my wife. Turns out she had been drinking since around noon, and was starting fights with everyone she came into contact with. This continued for a good half hour while my father and I looked on dumbfounded.

So we sheepishly went home. At that point I really just wanted to get super drunk and pass out, but I didn’t, because I love my father and will not knowingly disappoint him because of something his wife does. My wife was rather upset too, and we went to bed sober and there was no birthday sex. Still drove them to the airport the next morning, and dad’s wife acted like nothing happened.

So, really, it was a first world problem worst birthday, and could have been much worse. I haven’t made plans on my birthday since then, and I see it as any other day.

7. Ohhhh…nooo…

For my ninth birthday, my mom planned a surprise party for me. All of my friends would be waiting at my house after I got home from school and we were gonna have a great time.

Nobody showed up. Every parent kept their kid home. I ate cake with my family alone until one family friend showed up.

I was born on September 11, 1992.

As a bonus, I came in to school wearing a huge smile, completely unaware of what was going on.

There was also my seventh birthday, where my dad spilled an entire pitcher of tea on my pants at Joe’s Crab Shack and I sat and cried through them bringing me cake.

Also, the day before I turned… 17? I found out my grandpa’s cancer had come back with a vengeance and he was terminal.

8. “Selfish”

My best friend’s brother died suddenly. She asked me to throw a party to make her forget about it and she was thankful though I felt terrible about it. She shared a room with him so she stayed with me for 3 nights and I had to hold her as she cried. After she left I took down all my birthday cards and refused to open any presents. After the weekend someone had a go at me for being selfish. It was pretty bad.

9. Big birthday blowout

21st birthday. The week leading up to it my (now ex) boyfriend had been ignoring me, typical stuff. So the day comes, we take a boat ride (not my idea but hey, who cares it’s only my birthday). Naturally after we end up at the bars, working our way back home and surely enough I’m drunk off my b*tt by the time we get there.

So seeing this, he decides that now would be a good time to pick a huge argument with me in the middle of the bar, followed by a dramatic exit so he could smoke a cigarette, or so I assumed. It wasn’t until I realized it had been like 20 or so minutes that I walked outside to realize he had left me there.

Yeah. That one definitely takes the cake for me.

10. Whose birthday was it again?

My fifteenth birthday, was on holiday with my bio-dad and step mum who despised me and my sister. My dad wished me a happy birthday and asked me what I would like to do, before I could answer my step mother insisted she needed a new pair of shoes.

I spent my fifteenth birthday sitting quietly in the corner of a shoe shop while somebody who hated me and wanted to alienate me from my father tried on endless pairs of shoes, that he would buy for her.

11. WTF?

My 18th birthday was intended to be a huge surprise, one that had been planned by my sister, mother, and grandmother for weeks. Everything perfectly set, down to the T. The eve of my birthday, my half-sister over our family dinner explained to me in great detail everything that was planned for my birthday, as if I was supposed to know. The worst part was, she continued to talk over my family members as they tried to shut her up. Family fight erupts, leaving my mother and sister crying over their failed surprise

Icing on the cake: On my actual birthday, said half-sister shows up 3 hours late to the party, after all the “surprise” is over. Then, as I’m opening presents, decides it’s best to share how she had found a pair of a young girl’s underwear in a sketchy alley way near her work, and how “she can only imagine the worst”. The uncomfortable vibe couldn’t be broken after that and the party quickly died down.

12. Birthday present

On my 21st birthday, I got an email that would change my life forever. I still remember the day quite clearly. I was living in Japan at the time, and I was sitting at the bar having lunch when my phone dinged to let me know I had a message. It was an email from the DNA testing company with the results of my DNA test between myself and my son. They were a 99.999999999999999997% match. I was ecstatic, but the joy was fleeting.

I called the then ex-girlfriend to deliver the news. I remember being so happy dialing that number. She answered, listened to what I had to say, then proceeded to tell me that it didn’t matter. She doesn’t like who I am, she doesn’t like what I do for a living, she doesn’t think I’d make a good father. I was taken aback, I thought she was kidding and tried to laugh it off, but she solidified it all by hanging up the phone. I’d never known a feeling so painful. I imagine being shot hurts less than the words I had heard in that call.

I fought the good fight from then on, but I never talked to her again. Legal counsel recommended I try not to take her to court for custody because she will win (I have no support network, I live in a foreign nation, etc). I used to follow her Facebook and look at pictures of him, but after they started timeline, all her stuff became private. I’ve never even met him.

13. A Failure of a Mother

On my 9th birthday my mum took me and six girls from my class to the cinema.

About ten minutes into the movie she says “Gonna go get another Coke, you guys want anything? We said no thanks, we’re fine. She doesn’t come back. Movie ends and I can’t find her in the lobby, the bathrooms, outside, anywhere. It’s dark, I’m miles from home with no way of contacting anyone and my friends and I are all really scared. I ended up going into a toy shop beside the cinema, crying my eyes out and asked the manager to please help me. He calls the guards (Irish cops) and my friends and I get taken back to my house in two squad cars. My stepdad was absolutely horrified to see us coming home like that. I was really upset and in no mood to celebrate, we did the cake and presents routine and my friends’ parents picked them up soon after. My mum eventually showed up later that night, drunk.

I didn’t even bother yelling at her, it was a familiar situation and I knew there was no point. I cried myself to sleep that night. Then Monday arrived, and the girls had told everyone in our class what had happened, and nobody would talk to me. All their parents found out as well, nobody was allowed to come to my house any more and I didn’t get invited anywhere either.

It remained that way for the next three years of primary school.

Well, those stories were equal parts hilarious, shocking and sad. People can be nuts sometimes!

What did you think? Let us know in the comments!