Imagine being parents with a toddler. Would you be willing to travel hours in multiple different directions to make sure you visit all of the child’s grandparents for the holidays, or would you put your foot down and insist that you want to be home on Christmas?

In this story, one woman isn’t sure what to do. She wants her daughter to wake up at home on Christmas, but her parents want her to visit them.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITAH for not visiting family for XMAS with toddler?

I (33f) and my husband (37m) have a toddler (1.5f).

My husband’s parents are divorced and remarried. We live an 8 hrs drive from my family, 6 hrs drive and 1.5 flight from my husband’s family.

My parents bought a condo in our city after our daughter was born and stay there ~half the year. We see them quite often.

My husband and I both work from home and our daughter goes to daycare.

Here’s how their holiday plans are working this year…

We took the 1.5 flight to visit my husband’s mom for Thanksgiving, and will be driving the 6 hrs to visit my husband’s dad after Christmas and will be staying a little over a week there.

They are very helpful and will entertain our daughter all day.

The problem is, with my husband’s parents being divorced, we have 3 sets of parents that expect to see us around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This can get complicated.

We have seen/are planning to see all of my husband’s parents this year for the holidays.

My parents, who live the farthest away, want us to drive to see them for Christmas Eve and spend a few extra days before. We keep an apartment in that city as a short term rental that we’d stay at.

We are exhausted from Thanksgiving and haven’t decided if we will go see my parents for Christmas and they are mad.

This doesn’t sound like fun.

My parents aren’t helpful with childcare, live 30 mins from our apartment, and will expect us to tote our daughter around to do activities all day.

One or both of us would have to use PTO, as we would have no childcare during our time there.

I also want to make our own family traditions and have our daughter wake up at home on Christmas morning.

AITAH if I refuse to drive 8 hours to see my parents for Christmas Eve, even though we’ve seen all of my husband’s family for the holidays?

The holidays really can be stressful when there are multiple family members to visit. I wonder if OP’s parents would be willing to come to their house for Christmas Eve instead. She could explain that she wants her daughter to wake up at home on Christmas morning.

Let’s see what advice Reddit has to offer.

Here’s a vote for prioritizing what’s best for her.

I completely agree with this comment.

Blame Santa.

Here’s another vote for letting her parents be the ones to travel.

It’s time to establish a new Christmas tradition.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.