Are WE being unreasonable, or is she?

[EvilTwins]

Bit of background... My extended family has got into the habit of celebrating big birthdays by having a family weekend away. We've been doing it for just over 10 years - first one was for Uncle's 60th. They happen about once every 2 years. Last one was joint Uncle's 70th and Dad's 65th and was at Center Parcs, though in the past we've done hotels. Coming up is Auntie's 70th and Mum's 65th, for which we've booked a large self-catering house. There are 4 cousins (inc me) - 3 of us have 2 DCs each, aged between 3 and 10 yrs, and the 4th is married but they made a concious choice not to have any DCs (he has 2 from a previous marriage but they're in their 20s and choose not to come) The childless couple have dogs, and the oldest DC is very allergic to them. When the weekend away was first discussed, the isue of the dogs came up, and my cousin knew that she would not be able to bring the dogs to stay in the same house as the allergic DC. Alternatives were discussed (inc she and her DH and the dogs staying elsewhere and joining us for party etc) and rejected. However now she is saying that she and her DH should not be expected to pay as much as everyone else for the accommodation as they have to pay extra for kennels for the dogs. They've known about the break since October (it's in May) and we have to pay for it v soon. The objections have only been raised in the last couple of weeks. My sis and other cousin are really cross about it as she's making it a "dogs vs children" issue and is being quite unpleasant about it. We've said no - we're not paying more - on the grounds that she agreed to it in October and is only objecting now. She's saying she's not paying the same as everyone else and that's her final word.

Who is BU?

OMG I wrote your instead of you're .

And that sort of sadness gets angry doesn't it. Perhaps here you could be the bigger person and, if money is not too tight, offer her something by way of compensation for her dogs not coming.

I met a woman at a small child's birthday party (she stayed in the kitchen) who gleefully told me how she can't stand children.

Are you sure it's your relative and not the new(well, less than 5 years) husband that's being the tight-arse?

To err on the side of grace, maybe they thought they had a local dogsitter sorted and that fell through, so now they have an unanticipated expense of kennels? But yes. If they're monitoring milk (FFS! How much more expensive is alcohol than milk? I assume the children won't be drinking that but these childless killjoys people will!) so they don't have to pay for a few pints more than their share, then they really need to decide between paying their own kennel fee or staying home.