For many women, wedding dress shopping is the pinnacle of mother-daughter activities.

With the woman who raised you to help, choosing the dress for your special day together can be an honor, and bring you closer as a result.

But for many other women, it’s not that simple.

Whether your mom passed away, isn’t in your life, or you simply don’t have that close relationship, it can be a minefield to navigate wedding traditions that are inherently built on family – as the woman in this story found out.

Read on to discover how her father created a predicament ahead of the most important shopping trip of her life.

AITA for not inviting my dad’s girlfriend wedding dress shopping with me and my sisters?

My mom died five and a half years ago, and my dad started dating again three and a half years ago.

His girlfriend Cheryl seems okay.

I am 24, and haven’t spent much time with her to really know her well, but my sisters (who are 17 and 19) live with her now.

So my dad told me it would be good to invite Cheryl to join us wedding dress shopping (I’m engaged) and make her feel like a part of the family.

Cheryl had already mentioned how much she’d love to join us.

My dad just took it over from there – but I didn’t really want her there, and I told my dad I’d rather just keep it me and my sisters.

Let’s see how her father and his girlfriend took her response.

At first he took it okay and I thought that would be the end of it. But when the day came around,

Cheryl got ready to go anyway.

When I went to pick up my sisters, she told me that even though we wanted a sister day, she wanted to treat us afterward and she thought she’d come anyway.

My dad wasn’t home ,so it was me telling Cheryl that I still just wanted to do this with my sisters and me.

She told me she could be quiet and I’d hardly know she was there and I told her that my answer was still no.

The repercussions of this bride-to-be were worse than expected.

Apparently she was crying about it when my dad got home, and he was angry at me for not giving in when she was ready and everything.

Then, the two of us got into a fight.

My dad told me a bunch of times that he thought it was petty and mean to exclude her, and how she’s in our lives now and he wants to marry her.

He asked me what the harm would be and why wouldn’t I take the chance to include her in something special.

The fact that her dad didn’t understand cut deep.

I told him mom should be doing this with us, and having Cheryl there would just make it worse that mom isn’t here.

I told him that it wasn’t me trying to make him not date her or anyone, but that I would find it hard to include someone he’s with in something mom should be there for – like wedding dress shopping.

He told me he understood my emotions but to also think of how weird this would be for Cheryl, and how I don’t make the effort to spend time with her already and then won’t include her in something fun even when she offered to treat us afterward.

Then he said I’m too old to be holding onto the hurt at the cost of someone else’s feelings.

AITA?

Wow, this poor bride’s dad is totally unempathetic.

Sure he has moved on, but that doesn’t mean that his daughters have to move on with him.

Her approach to her wedding preparations is highly personal, and not his and his girlfriend’s to dictate.

Let’s see what Reddit had to say about this.

This Redditor agreed that she was totally right to uphold her boundaries.

While others pointed out the extent of Cheryl’s sly behavior.

And this person thought that the father should be thinking about his daughter, not just his girlfriend.

Dress shopping without her late mom is likely to be quite emotional for this bride to be as it is, without having to deal with her dad’s new girlfriend – who she doesn’t even know very well.

She’s made the right choice by choosing to spend the event with her sisters, who are also feeling the loss themselves too.

Good on her for making the best of things and not swaying to the pressure from her unempathetic dad.

Her sadness can’t be fixed like magic.

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.