If you are fortunate enough to be able to take time off work over the holidays, to visit family and celebrate together, you can count yourself lucky – and it’s normal for you to look forward to this time together.

And if you live far away from family, this time can feel like a real novelty and something to be excited for.

But there’s one thing that very few people who live far from their families look forward to, and that’s the sheer amount of travelling that seems to be a staple of the holiday season.

For the couple in this story, the long-distance travelling was made even more complicated by the fact that neither of them drive.

Read on to find out how finally, their inability to drive presented them with a huge problem.

AITA for refusing to ask my parents for a lift to go see my in-laws during New Year?

My husband (35, male) and I (32, female) live in a big city. We recently had a baby this summer and our respective families don’t live near us.

My parents live about a 45-minute drive on the north shore and my sister (Virginia and her husband Sean) are an hour and 45 minutes in that same direction.

My husband’s family live a lot further. His sister (let’s call her Jeannine) is about two and a half hours’ drive, and his mom (my mother-in-law) is even further – about three hours away from us. My husband has lived in this city for more than a decade now.

Read on to find out how they get around to seeing family.

Neither me nor my husband have a license, and it’s never been an issue before since we live in a big city with easy access to everything by walking or public transport.

My mom used to travel a lot in the city for her job so she knows the streets very well. But since she’s been sick a lot over the last two to three years, she doesn’t drive any more.

Since my dad is really bad with orientation skills, she’s the co-pilot and they’re okay if they know where to go because they’re way too old and don’t use GPS anyway. They usually check the roads before leaving anywhere, or they go somewhere familiar.

Let’s see how this is affecting their Christmas plans this year.

So basically we go to my parents’ house for Christmas, and for other occasions they either come to my apartment or they come and pick up us and the baby, and drives us to their house which is my childhood home.

So the plan for the holidays is on Christmas Day, my parents are gonna drive to my house get me, my husband and 0ur baby and drive back at their house for Christmas lunch (because baby is asleep at dinner time and they want to see her and open gifts and all).

Virginia and Sean will be there also, and later in the afternoon my parents will drive us back with the baby and all the gifts that we have to bring back – they don’t mind offering lifts and they understand it’s easier for me that way.

But when it comes to seeing her in-laws, the plans are very different.

For New Year, we plan to visit my husband’s family. Since they live far away, we’re staying at Jeannine’s house with her partner and their eleven-year-old son.

They will host a big party on the 31st for New Year, so we will be staying around the 30th through the 1st or maybe the 2nd of January.

I thought Jeannine would come and drive us back and forth like she did a couple of months ago, but recently my husband asked me if I could ask my parents for a lift from them to go see my in-laws.

And she really wasn’t happy with that suggestion.

It would take them at least three hours to come to us pick us up drive there, and three hours going back to their house – meanwhile, they don’t have anywhere to visit in that area or anything to do at my in-laws, since they are not invited for the party whatsoever.

My husband says that’s it’s unfair that my family lives closer to us than his, and he doesn’t see any harm at asking my elderly parents for a six hour drive to my in-laws.

Am I wrong for refusing to ask my family for a lift, because it’s an insane amount of time for a courtesy drive to go somewhere they don’t have to be or aren’t invited – especially when I have a feeling it’s not his idea?

AITA?

She’s right – her parents collecting them to go to their own house for Christmas is one thing, but expecting them to do a six-hour round trip to drop them off at an event they’re not even invited to is too much.

If his family can’t collect them, they need to find another mode of transport.

Otherwise, they’re not going to be able to attend at all.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit thought about this.

This person agreed that asking her elderly parents for the lift would be totally unfair.

While others thought that they were old enough to get driver’s licenses.

Meanwhile, this Redditor thought they could even catch a bus, rather than put her parents out.

It’s true, this couple are adults and need to be taking responsibility for their own transport.

They have a kid and it’s important that they can figure out how to get from A to B without relying on people who live far away from them.

And her husband’s insistence on asking her parents shows a complete lack of consideration.

They need to grow up.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.