Family friend buys teen the 'wrong' birthday gift; is called 'a jerk.'

AITA for getting a 15yr old a gift she wanted instead of the one her mom wanted?

This happened last weekend but I'm still having arguments over this with my friend so thought I'd come here to get some outside perspective and opinions.

So last Saturday one of my coworkers and good friends was throwing a birthday party for her daughter and she invited me. I asked her what I should get her daughter and she said that I should get a karaoke machine.

But a few days later when I was hanging out with my younger sister who is around the same age as my friend's daughter I told her about that karaoke machine and she basically laughed at me and said that no one actually wants that and she said I should just message her on IG and ask her what she wants instead of getting something she's gonna hate or not use.

So that's what I did. She ended up sending me some links to some clothes and bags she liked and said that I should just choose one. They were all fairly expensive ones so I just chose the cheapest bag on her list which was still over 300 Euros (320 dollars for the Americans).

Saturday comes and I end up giving her the bag and my friend saw that I didn't get the gift she told me to and asked me about it. So I explained everything and she was very upset with me saying that I shouldn't have messaged her daughter and that I should have just gotten the karaoke machine.

We had a small argument and even her daughter told her that she never wanted a karaoke machine but my friend still insisted I was a 'jerk' for going behind her back. She didn't talk to me at all throughout the party and even now a week later she constantly brings it up. So was AITA?

Notes from OP:

I'm a man.

We're not just coworkers. We've known each other for 7 years and we're good friends outside of work too.

I don't know if it's just within our social circle or whether that's a cultural thing but teenagers usually have two 'parties'. One is for them and their friends whether it's a sleepover, going out etc and the other is for family, friends, parents friends etc.

This is more or less what we spend on gifts. Last year I bought her daughter a podcast microphone thingy and that was around €180.

Here's what people had to say:

Mobile_Prune_3207 writes:

Sounds like mom wanted the karaoke machine.

NewUserNameSameError writes:

And mom was so excited, she had visions of family and friend get-togethers where everybody is sitting around listening to her undiscovered talent.

Appropriate_Tote_764 writes:

ESH. The gift was not directly the issue, but rather you ignored a parents request and dealt with their child directly instead. On top of that, the gift they asked for was much more expensive than what the parent requested. That’s a breach of trust.

soph_lurk_2018 writes:

I think messaging the daughter without letting the mom know is weird. I wouldn’t want my adult male friend (OP said he is male in a comment) messaging my teenager daughter unless I knew about it.

TheBlueLeopard writes:

YTA. You're friends with the mom, not the daughter. There was no reason for you to go the extra kilometer, contacting a child through social media without her mother's knowledge and then buying her an expensive fashion item.