One thing families often seem to forget is that a wedding is about the bride and groom, and the decisions should be left up to them. All too often, other family members try to demand that the wedding is their way instead of letting the happy couple have the day of their dreams.

In today’s story, one man shares that there’s a lot of drama surrounding his wedding because his dad’s girlfriend seems to think she should be a part of it. He disagrees.

Let’s see why they have such differing opinions about this matter.

AITA for not wanting to give my dad’s partner a chance to feel like a parent at my wedding?

I (29m) lost my mom to a heart attack when I was only 15 and she was only 40.

My dad stayed single until I was out of the house and then he started dating a widow named Maria.

Maria never had any children and from talking to her over the years I know this is something she never got past.

My dad and Maria live together but they plan to never marry because they want to still be married (in a sense) to their late spouses.

The drama started when his sister got married.

My sister (32f) and I get along fine with Maria but we’re not very close to her. This was always fine or at least her and my dad accepted it until my sister got married.

There were hurt feelings that my sister didn’t invite Maria dress shopping or include her in the process and she was dad’s +1 at the wedding and was not mentioned in any of the toasts or speeches.

Now his dad is asking him a favor.

Now my wedding is coming up and my dad told me Maria was hoping she could be treated like one of the parents of the groom.

He said what Maria was really hoping for was for me to ask her to dance when my fiancée is dancing with her dad.

He told me it would be a small thing that would mean so much and even better if I wanted both of them to walk me down the aisle.

He told me it would make her feel like a parent which was the hardest thing to never have realized.

Not gonna happen!

I told my dad I wasn’t comfortable with that and Maria is not in any way a parent to me.

Dad told me even adults can have parent figures they just meet. And that I could do worse than making his partners dreams come true even in a small and minor way.

Maria reached out after my dad did and she told me she knew I had said no to my dad but she was hoping I would reconsider.

She stated all the reasons she wants him to reconsider.

She told me again how much she and her late husband had longed for children but the two of them have struggles with fertility.

And she said my dad having me and my sister felt like her chance to claim that role of a parent in some minor way but my sister had already made it clear she would never even get a sliver of the experience but she was hoping I would be open to it.

She told me she was not trying to replace my mom or pretend she is my mom but to feel like a parent for just one day.

Still not gonna happen!

I explained I still wasn’t comfortable with it to her.

She became frustrated and told me it was clear I had not taken the request seriously and she didn’t understand what she did that made the two of us shut her out of our weddings like this but she had no choice except to accept it.

She ended the call in a very clearly annoyed state and then my dad texted me about an hour after saying I could have done a wonderful thing at no cost to me and instead I chose to let my grief get in the way.

And while dad and I have talked since things are somewhat more tense. My sister feels it too. AITA for this?

It’s his wedding, and she’s not his mom. He doesn’t have to pretend that he thinks of her as a family member and include her in his wedding.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

She’s asking too much.

His wedding is not about Maria.

It’s not his fault she doesn’t have kids.

If she really wanted to be a mom, she could’ve adopted.

It’s his wedding, not his dad’s girlfriend’s special day.

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.