Parents often imagine the empty-nest phase as a long-awaited reward after years of sacrifice and structure.

So when one couple finally prepared to send their twin sons off to college, a last-minute request from family threatened to fill those newly empty rooms once again.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one.

AITA for not letting my nephew live with us in college?

My wife and I have two twin boys who are going to college next month.

We are very excited for them and also excited for us to be empty nesters.

For him, this freedom has been a long time coming.

I love my boys, but I’ve been looking forward to living with just my wife and me for a long time.

My wife’s sister has a son, Josh, who will be going to a college in the same city we live in.

But soon an unwanted requested began to threaten his empty nester dreams.

My wife’s sister recently asked us if Josh could stay with us during school or freshman year since we’ll have two empty bedrooms and dorms are expensive.

My wife said she’d begrudgingly allow it if I was on board, but admitted it’s not really what she wants, and agreed we both need to be on board for it to happen.

But he knew this isn’t what he wanted.

I declined.

I feel bad for Josh, but I want my privacy and don’t want to live with an 18/19-year-old college kid.

If one of my kids stayed home an extra year, that’d be a little disappointing, but I’d allow it. I just don’t want my nephew here.

But his refusal sparked more family drama.

It’s caused a bit of conflict, with my SIL calling me a selfish AH and saying I’m not acting like family.

I suggested they just take out more loans to pay for it if they don’t have the cash in hand, which I think they could make work if they tried, or if my SIL went back to work.

AITA?

Even with family, no one wants an unwanted obligation.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter agrees, but with a couple caveats.

At the end of the day, it’s up to his SIL to figure it out herself.

This commenter agrees the SIL is being quite selfish.

Some things are just too big to request of others.

After decades of parenting, what these people really needed was some peace and quiet.

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