In a blended family, every decision can feel like a balancing act of priorities.

When one father was forced to choose between attending the birth of his new grandchild or honoring a previous commitment to watch his other children, his choice ended up sparking a bitter confrontation with his ex.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for not taking my youngest children on their weekend because my oldest daughter had a baby?

I (40M) have been married to my wife, Cindy, off and on. We had a child together who is now 17.

We hit a rocky part in our marriage and split for a few years.

During that time, I met a woman, Stacy.

We were together for a while and had twins, who are now 12.

Stacy and I eventually split up because she ended up being unfaithful.

He and Stacy now share custody of their shared kids.

Two years later, I reconciled with Cindy.

We got my twins every weekend due to our work schedules.

But soon, an unexpected emergency came up.

This past weekend, my oldest daughter went into early labor.

It was also my weekend with my twins.

He tries to explain this situation to his ex.

I told Stacy on my way to the hospital that I wouldn’t be able to have them this weekend because of this.

I put my phone on silent and away because there was a lot going on.

But she wasn’t understanding at all.

When I returned to my phone, I had a bunch of texts from Stacy saying I needed to go home and be with my twins.

She said Cindy could handle the situation with my daughter.

He asserts this is a moment he just can’t miss.

I told her absolutely not — I wasn’t missing the birth of my grandchild.

But she continues with her accusations.

She responded angrily, saying I was picking my oldest daughter over my youngest.

She argued that it was wrong, especially since they can only see me on the weekends.

I tried texting and calling her multiple times throughout the weekend, but she never responded.

AITA?

Now this situation is a textbook example of being between a rock and a hard place.

Redditors took to their keyboards for some discourse.

Hurt feeling aside, there was an emergency here he urgently needed to attend to. He shouldn’t be faulted for that.

This situation calls everyone involved to take a step back and look at the big picture.

It’s easy for some to let their biases cloud their judgement, but this man was only doing the best he could with what he had.

And this commenter happens to think this father made the right decision.

Timing may be everything in life, but we can’t always control the clock.

No matter what his ex might think, some moments are just too important to miss.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.