Woman Outraged After Her Friend Took a Slice of Birthday Cake Before It Had Been Served — Calls Her a ‘Greedy Toddler’ 

A woman is upset because a friend ate a slice of her “beautifully decorated” birthday cake before it was officially served, and she’s asking the internet if she’s overreacting.

She shared her story on the “Am I Being Unreasonable?” forum on Mumsnet.com, where people go for advice on tricky social situations. The woman said she recently threw a birthday party for herself.

“I invited all my favorite people, plus a friend who has been acting strangely and has been rude and abrupt recently,” she wrote.

The party had a buffet dinner planned for 8 p.m., followed by music and dancing.

“At 8:45 p.m., the band played ‘Happy Birthday.’ I blew out the candles and went to cut the (huge and beautifully decorated) cake,” she explained.

However, things went wrong when she stepped away to grab some napkins. When she returned, the friend had already taken a big triangular slice from the front of the cake and brought it to her table.

“We were all astonished and have been trying to understand why she thought this was okay,” the woman added.

She gave some background about the friend: “She is 70, a highly educated professional, but socially awkward. Lately, she’s been impatient and anxious in cafes and hotels at meal times, wanting to be served first.”

The woman asked, “AIBU [am I being unreasonable?],” wondering if she should be “compassionate” or annoyed that her friend acted like a “greedy toddler.”

Most commenters said she was overreacting, especially since the birthday song had already been sung and the candles blown out.

“I would do the same [as the friend],” one person said. “Wouldn’t expect the birthday girl to stand there for ages serving her own cake!”

Another wrote, “As it seems that she took the slice after ‘Happy Birthday’ had been sung, and when it was about to be served, I’d struggle to do more than laugh it off. It doesn’t seem like a big deal.”

Someone else added, “I thought you were going to say she took cake before it had been shown off and the singing done, which would have been rude. But you’d already done that and the candles, so I can’t really see an issue. Pretty normal at buffets for people to help themselves rather than wait to be served.”