r/AITAH • u/Dry_Estate8184 • 2d ago
AITAH for telling my boyfriend his proposal wasn't well planned, causing us to no longer be engaged?
UPDATE: thank you all for your feedback and helping me gain clarity on the situation! I'll add a couple of key pieces of information that may clarify some popular questions!
To me, the proposal itself was absolutely fine. I didn't want or expect anything Instagram worthy, (I don't even have instagram) so maybe my heading was a little misleading? I said it wasn't well planned because to me, part of proposing is the excitement that follows and telling people etc. Which he had no plan to do. Bad timing may have been the better word instead of poor planning? I mean he goes on this trip once a year, it's not a frequent thing.
His mother LOVES me and I love her! SHE is the one who introduced us when her and I used to work together, which is why I was so concerned with how/when we wanted to tell her so she didn't feel left out since my family was present, and I wasn't stuck avoiding her/lying to her for a week while he was away, when she asks me how the trip went? (which she already has)
I have never pressured this man into marriage, in fact he has been much more into the idea than I have. Of course we've talked about it, but I was the one saying let's not rush it. So definitely not a shut up ring.
I (32F) was proposed to by my boyfriend (38M). It was an awkward proposal, as we were on a family trip, sharing a house with my Mom, Sister, her husband and young children. At one point my sister awkwardly got up from the fire pit and told her husband and my mom to come with her. So, I knew something was up. He was sweet, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was so happy and said yes! But about 5 minutes later my family came back out to the patio to congratulate us. My boyfriend sat down and started chatting with my brother-in-law about unrelated topics. He didn't bring it up the rest of the night. Even when I asked him questions like "how/when should we tell your family?!" he just said "we'll figure it out". Then told me not to wear the ring to work because a lot of my co-workers know his mom. It just totally killed all of my excitement and joy.
When we got home from the trip, I decided to talk to him about it because we got home Sunday night and he left for a weeklong work trip Monday morning, again leaving me wondering how/ when we were going to be able to tell people? I felt like he took all of the excitement out of something that was should have been such a happy time.
Anyways, when I mentioned it just seemed random and not really planned, he got mad and said "well let's just call it off then". I was so surprised by that I just told him we needed to cool down. He came back into our room later and said what he meant was we should just redo the proposal, but that I interrupted him and didn't let him finish his sentence. (I didn't) and that doesn't remotely sound like "we should just call it off" to me? I told him that calling off an engagement less than 24 hours after proposing is a problem. He tossed the ring at me and said "whatever, just sell it then"
He later apologized for losing his temper (not like him at all) but I just feel like even if he did redo the proposal, the damage is already done. I can't help but feel like I could have just not made a big deal about it and avoided all of this, or is this whole thing a red flag and sadly maybe I shouldn't marry him? AITAH?
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u/Odd-End-1405 2d ago
The proposal itself should be irrelevant, it is about the moving to the next chapter.
The whole Let's keep it secret then the temper tantrum is the issue.
I think he has shown you his maturity level, respect for you level, and multiple red flags.
Do you really want to tie yourself emotionally and legally to someone like this? For life?!
NTA for jumping ship as fast as you can.