Late-night arrivals are never easy, especially in a household with young kids.

So, what do you do when a family member insists on showing up at an unreasonable hour? Should you let it slide to avoid tension? Or should you stand firm and set boundaries?

In the following story, a father faces this very dilemma and stands firm until he gets his way. Here’s the whole story.

AITA for telling my FIL that he cannot arrive at our house at 1am?

My FIL is staying with us for 3 weeks over the holidays, which I already find an unacceptable length of time, but whatever.

He told us he was planning on coming up this weekend from FL (he will be driving). My wife asked him what time he thought he might be arriving, and he said 1 am. I said that was unacceptable and that he should leave at a different time or stop along the way and get a hotel.

We have 2 young children, 8 months and 3.5 years old. The guest bedroom my FIL will be staying at requires him to walk past their rooms. The last thing I need is him coming at 1 am, making all sorts of noise, and waking up everyone.

Here’s where they all disagreed.

My wife was talking to my FIL, and she was pushing back a little bit, and I kept quiet until he said, “There’s another way of looking at this: a man coming to visit his family.”

Like we are lucky to be graced with his presence. I had to chime in and say, “No, 1 am is unacceptable.” He replies, “You’re entitled to your opinion.” The conversation got a bit heated after that comment with it, resulting in him agreeing to arrive at a normal time.

Now, my wife is trying to guilt trip me into being the bad guy for making him arrive at a normal time.

AITA?

Yikes! It’s important not to let people walk all over you, but the FIL does have a long trip.

Let’s see what the fine folks over at Reddit had to say about this.

This person is spot on.

Exactly! It’s just one person.

As this person points out, maybe he’s staying so long to see what goes on in the household.

Here’s someone who thinks the main point should be about memories for the kids.

This guy sounds like something else.

When you’re traveling long distances, it’s hard to estimate what time you’ll arrive. And as others pointed out, the FIL can be quiet as he enters the home, so the husband needs to calm down.

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