However, she had only received texts from her parents complaining about how much things cost on the island.
“All I’ve pretty much heard from them is how expensive their food is. Not a thank you or even an appreciate or positive remark,” she wrote.
Angered by her parents’ response, the woman wanted to know whether her feelings were justified in response to “so many messages just complaining”.
In the post shared on June 13, the woman attached a screenshot of her texts to one of her parents, who sent her a photo of an Eftpos machine showing US$104 ($170) followed by several “shocked” emojis.
“Quit your complaining you’re in paradise on a free vacation,” the daughter replied with a laughing/crying emoji.
“Our CHEAPEST meal was $40,” the parents quipped back, adding that meals cost about US$50-60 everywhere.
The daughter joked she would send her parents to Arkansas for their next trip, but they simply responded that a condo in Hawaii would have been a “smarter” option because they could have cooked some meals.
The post received almost 5000 reactions and more than 4500 comments as people dished out their judgment. While most supported the daughter, others painted an empathetic picture of how the parents could have felt.
“When something like this happens to me, I write, ‘You said ‘thank you’ wrong’ and just leave it,” read the most liked comment.
“That is the most entitled selfish thing I’ve seen in a while,” another stated, adding they were sorry the woman’s act of kindness wasn’t appreciated.
A few comments empathised with the parents, saying it would be difficult to be in a beautiful destination but struggle with the cost of meals.
“It’s a nice gesture to send them somewhere for helping you but this may have actually created a hardship for them or at least caught them off guard for how much this ‘free’ vacation was going to cost them,” one person wrote.
Another agreed that, while the holiday was “beyond generous” it would be “pretty crappy” if you couldn’t afford to eat out while there.
One person pointed out it wasn’t a “free vacation” if you had to pay high prices to eat at restaurants.
The woman responded to these comments, saying she knew her parents’ finances reasonably well and wouldn’t have sent them to a destination if she had known it would cause them to “struggle”.
However, others countered that if money was tight, there were many ways to avoid paying for expensive food, whether it was finding cheap spots or turning down the trip altogether.
“If they were going to be that concerned you’d think they’d look some things up about food cost and stuff beforehand and politely decline if they didn’t want to spend that money,” one person wrote.
Others said the parents were being lazy when it came to finding affordable places to eat.
“If you do a simple search you can find places to eat for $10 per person. It seems like they’re not very resourceful,” another said.
“The food is expensive, but you’re in Kauai so who cares?!” one person wrote.
