It’s hard to please everyone when your family expects you to pick sides.

What would you do if you had rebuilt a relationship with your estranged parent, and they stayed at your home every Christmas, but because there are problems this year, they want you to uninvite them at the last minute?

Would you give in to their wishes? Or would you stand up for your tradition?

In the following story, one man finds himself in this situation and chooses the latter.

Here’s what happened next.

AITA for not kicking my father out on Christmas

When I was a child, my father (Jim) messed around a lot.

My parents were married, and they really shouldn’t have ever been. It was not a good relationship, and when I was 10, he messed around again. I am the second-oldest of 5.

He was not a present parent, and we all basically grew up without him. During this time, my mom would hate on him constantly ( some valid reasons, a lot of it was made-up stuff). My mother is a bit of a difficult woman to get along with, so as I grew, my relationship with her wasn’t the best.

He’s been spending Christmas with his father every year.

Jim reached out to everyone when I was a freshman in college, and I am the only one who gave him a chance. This upset my mom and siblings greatly, and we basically ignored the topic.

Jim has been a huge support to me for many years at this point. I have moved on and forgiven him for leaving.

The past few years, Jim has been coming up to spend Christmas at my place. He usually shows up on Christmas Eve and stays the entire weekend. I still go to my mom’s place for dinner on Christmas Day.

This year, she was behind on the house and had to sell. We were still going to do it at her apartment, but a pipe burst in the apartment complex.

Now, his mother wants to dictate what happens at his house.

My mom started texting me asking me to have it at my place because I own a house. That’s not a big deal.

I informed them that Jim is staying at my house. They were not happy, and it boiled down to I need to uninvite him. My siblings made it clear that they will not come, and my mom called me a betrayer when I told her no.

They are claiming I am ruining Christmas and that they won’t have a place to celebrate if I don’t host. My younger siblings don’t have their own place, and my oldest is a few states away.

AITA?

Wow! This sounds like a pretty tough situation.

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit think should happen.

This reader thinks it’s all a big guilt trip.

According to this person, they should get together after Christmas.

Here’s a good way to think about it.

This person offers a different approach.

He handled this well.

They have no right to tell him who he can and cannot invite to his home.

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.