A dad recently sparked a lively debate online after refusing his mother-in-law’s request to delay bedtime for his two small children.
Posting on Reddit’s AITA forum, he explained that he, his wife, and their two kids — ages 4 and 18 months — had just returned from a long trip to Chicago. Their flight had been delayed for over an hour and a half, and their youngest cried for much of the journey. By the time they landed and got home, the family was exhausted.
His mother-in-law had picked them up from the airport and immediately began talking about wanting her brother — who was in town and set to drive back to Florida the next morning — to stop by that evening to meet the kids.
“She called him up and tried to invite him over once we got home without ever consulting my wife or me,” the dad wrote. “Luckily, I overheard and told her no — the kids were going straight to bed, and I wasn’t going to accommodate her brother.”
It was nearly 7 p.m., and after traveling from a different time zone, it felt even later for the children. His mother-in-law didn’t take the refusal well and accused him of being rude for not letting her brother visit.
“She made it clear she thought I was being rude when I told her under no circumstances would he be seeing my children that evening,” he explained. “From my perspective, we’d just survived a brutal travel day, the kids were overtired and melting down, and forcing them to stay up so a relative could say hi felt unfair to them — and to us as parents.”
Though he values family connections, the dad said he wasn’t sure whether he’d overreacted by blocking the visit.
Commenters were quick to reassure him that he made the right call. One user pointed out that a 7 p.m. visit is late even on a normal day for young kids:
“A visit after 7 p.m. is too late for a 4-year-old and an 18-month-old on a good day. After a stressful travel day when they were already overtired? Absolutely not.”
Another noted that the mother-in-law’s behavior crossed a line:
“It’s appropriate to prioritize the needs of small children over the feelings of adults who didn’t make plans in advance. Inviting someone to someone else’s home without permission is incredibly rude.”
A third commenter agreed that while offering to meet the next morning could’ve been a kind gesture, the father’s stance was understandable:
“Forcing kids to stay up and be exhausted isn’t fair. Why couldn’t the great-uncle delay his trip for a day? It’s not right to inconvenience little kids just to please adults.”
