When it comes to family gatherings, there’s always a delicate balance between hospitality and personal boundaries.

But when one cousin locks away their belongings to protect them from chaotic little hands, the fallout becomes a bigger issue than anyone expected.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

AITA for locking my room door so kids won’t get inside and ruin my stuff?

So basically, my (19F) parents decided to invite my uncles (who live together) and their families for dinner.

Both my uncles have six kids, and four of each of their children are in a very close age bracket (3F, 3F, 2F, 1.5F, 1M, 4F, 5F, 6F).

The only thing more chaotic than six kids is six poorly behaved kids.

Now, I don’t mind them coming over, but the thing is, these specific eight kids do not have any manners.

This could be do to the glaring lack of parental figures in their lives.

Despite three nannies accompanying the families wherever they go, they refuse to correct the children if they are doing something damaging to the house, like spilling water on the floor or breaking an ornament.

Instead, the nannies are scrolling through their phones while the children’s parents are having discussions with our family in the living room.

She feels nervous about what these kids might do if given unsupervised access to her space.

Now, I have a lot of valuable things in my room, like my handwritten notes, my iPad, my phone, and laptop, which I do not want the kids near.

I know they’ll cry and ask for them and break them.

Keeping them in drawers isn’t viable either, as the kids open drawers as well.

So, I simply decided to lock my room so no one can enter and everything would be safe.

I told my mom, and she had no problems with it.

But soon, her aunt began requesting access to her room.

Now, throughout the dinner, everything went well until I saw one of my aunts with a buzz of kids carrying her 2F daughter outside our room and trying to open it as she wanted to change her.

She called me over and said the room wasn’t opening and that we’d have to call the key master.

She stands firm on her boundary and the night goes on.

I said the room wasn’t opening as I’d locked it and she could use any other room to change her daughter if she liked.

Now, she didn’t say anything, just looked at me a bit weirdly, and went to the other room.

I know she complained about it because after the dinner ended, my grandmother was not happy with me.

But it caused quite a stir among the rest of her relatives.

She said I was disrespecting my uncles and aunts and saying they couldn’t raise kids properly and being rude, that they have too many kids to handle and God was the one giving them babies and we had no right to comment about their fertility (even though I said nothing like this?).

She said my cousins also have a right to this house and to see what’s inside the room.

My parents aren’t angry with me and think I did the right thing, but after what my grandmother said, I’m still wondering: AITA?

The right choice isn’t always the most popular one.

What did Reddit think about the situation?

First of all, sticking up for yourself and your boundaries isn’t “rude”.

It almost seems like her family went out of their way just to push her buttons.

This commenter thinks she did exactly the right thing to protect her space.

It can be anxiety-inducing to host people, especially destructive people with no discipline or self awareness.

Her locked door may have kept the kids out, but it certainly didn’t keep the family’s judgment at bay.

Regardless, it was clear that some things are worth protecting, even if it means ruffling a few feathers.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.