Family vacations should be fun, and they usually are! But every once in a while a family member can rub someone the wrong way and it can really impact the trip.

For this man, he is on a big vacation with his extended family, including his brother in law. They have some differing opinions on parenting and it’s caused a serious clash.

Some of his family thinks he’s being sensitive, lets see what he has to say…

AITAH for telling my brother-in-law to always assume I don’t want his parenting advice?

We are on a family vacation right now. Me, my wife, our kids, her parents, her sister, her brother, his wife and their kids. The resort we are staying at has a really nice buffet.

We went there for dinner last night. As we were walking to the buffet from our table I told the kids to only get one plate at a time and not to over pile it with food, because they could get as many plates as they wanted, and I didn’t want them spilling food on the floor.

My brother-in-law made a comment that I “even have rules for the buffet.”

That’s a little passive agressive.

He said to his kids “don’t worry. You don’t have to follow Uncle OP’s rules. You’re on vacation. Do what you want.” I didn’t respond.

At the table he saw that my oldest got a huge piece of salmon and that he had scooped green beans on top of the salmon. It wasn’t a mountain of food or anything. It just wasn’t carefully separated.

My brother-in-law said “don’t let OP see that. What if a green bean rolls off?” I told my son to ignore him and enjoy his food.

My brother-in-law said “that’s the key to raising happy kids. You should want them to enjoy life. It’s hard to enjoy anything when there are a million rules.”

I told him I don’t want parenting advice from him while I’m trying to enjoy my meal. He said he didn’t realize he was bothering me and asked when he should give advice.

He put his foot down!

I said “go ahead and assume I never want parenting advice from you.” My mother-in-law said to my wife “your husband is in a mood, huh? I hope he isn’t like this tomorrow.”

That was the end of it. No one commented further.

Was I out of line to say that? I think my response was proportional to his statements. I don’t want his advice, and I would prefer he didn’t give it.

I also don’t approve of his parenting, but I don’t say so. I would like the same courtesy. Is that unreasonable?

Let’s see what the comments say…

This person points out the hypocrisy.

Others pointed out that it sounds like his brother in law is like this a lot.

And this commenter points out that he’s actually parenting right!

It’s best to mind your business when it comes to parenting!

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.