Sure, hanging out with family over the holiday period can be a blast.

But there’s one vital part of that trip that many come to despise – and that’s the travelling element.

Nowadays, families are often quite spread apart, so holiday events necessitate a whole lot of travelling, whether that’s by flight or train, bus or car, and generally that travelling isn’t much fun.

But for the guy in this story, the five-hour drive is a worthwhile pay off for a fun family gathering.

That is, until his mother-in-law got involved.

Read on to find out what happened here.

AITA for telling my mother-in-law and my wife that I will no longer drive them to their family’s holiday reunions?

My wife (44) and I (43) have been married for ten years.

Ever since we dated, I have been the default driver. She gets stressed about driving and I get motion sickness unless I drive, so it all kind of worked out.

For the last couple of years, we started a tradition during the holidays to drive about five hours to my wife’s cousin’s place. After we make plans to visit, all of the cousins fly in from different states to join us.

Since my mother-in-law (78) lives near us, she comes along too.

Let’s see how this nice family event caused friction.

My mother-in-law used to make the drive herself in the past, but she cannot do it by herself anymore.

While she needs to make many pitstops, more than the average person, that doesn’t bother me. I am happy to be the driver. We’ve done this a handful of times with no issues.

But the other day, my mother-in-law was over at our house and we were talking about making the drive for another holiday get together.

Out of nowhere, she said, “I would love that, if Bobby (me) would promise to drive safer.”

Yikes! Read on to find out how he felt about that comment.

I was very confused about her criticism of my driving.

First of all, she has never mentioned this before. Second, I get made fun of by my friends because I drive like a granny (no offence to grannies!).

I mean, there is dangerous driving and then there are people who maybe drive with one hand or don’t always abide by the three-seconds-behind-the-car rule. I don’t exactly count every time I get behind another vehicle, but I keep a safe distance.

Honestly, all I could think of that might be considered dangerous is that I tend to speed up to pass semi trucks because I don’t like being behind them. Don’t most people do this? I pass them in the left lane and get back in the right lane.

This comment made him quite contemplative about his driving.

I also want to add that any time I have a passenger in my vehicle, I am extra careful. In addition, since we have a three year old daughter, add another level of care.

I was kind of flabbergasted that my mother-in-law thinks my driving is at all dangerous.

I asked her what she meant, and she mentioned that at the speed of 60 mph, I need at least twelve car lengths between my vehicle and the car in front. Who actually does this especially when there are many vehicles on the road?

I don’t mind driving, but driving five hours and making sure we are safe weighs heavily on me already. I don’t need someone looking over my shoulder judging my driving.

Regardless, he tried to temper his reaction to his mother-in-law’s comments.

I was pretty heated inside and didn’t respond to her immediately, to which my mother-in-law said, “Bobby, it’s rude to ignore me when I am talk to you.”

This made me even more angry. My wife immediately knew that I was not happy.

She knows that when I get angry, I tend to not say anything because it is my defense mechanism from saying the wrong thing.

Growing up, my dad was the kind of person who would not think before he opened is mouth during an argument. Even if he was right, his reactive responses would make him look dumb and wrong.

Let’s see how he chose to respond.

I thought through what I should say and I said, “I don’t have to drive if my driving scares you. I can sit in the back and keep Lisa (my daughter) occupied.”

I was pretty proud of myself because I said it pretty calmly. I would have enjoyed not driving for once. My wife, trying to calm the situation, added, “I can drive, no problem.”

At this point, my mother-in-law started to talk to me like I was five.

She said, “That’s not an adult response.”

Yikes! Read on to find out what happened next.

At this point, I just lost it and said, “It’s fine if you don’t like my driving. I think I am a pretty safe driver but if you don’t like it, I don’t have to drive. Tess (my wife) said she can drive. Problem solved.”

Then, she started arguing about the rules of the road.

I told her that I will be an even worse driver knowing I am being judged and second guessing myself. It’s probably better if I don’t drive at this point. Honestly, I don’t remember how the heated moment ended but I have been stewing over this since.

My wife has been very supportive of me, but kept asking, “are you really not going to drive us?” Honestly, I don’t want to.

AITA?

This guy is going out of his way to drive the family five hours to visit cousins – a strenuous activity as it is.

And now his mother-in-law is picking fault with his driving, and speaking to him like he’s a child?

She doesn’t have to go with them then.

Let’s see what the Reddit community made of this.

This person agreed that his mother-in-law didn’t have to travel in their vehicle.

While others pointed out that her logic was wrong.

Meanwhile, this Redditor was concerned there might be more to the situation than meets the eye.

If this is out of character for his mother-in-law, there’s definitely a chance that there’s something neurological going on there – or else she’s getting grouchy in her old age.

Perhaps she’s out-of-sorts about not being able to drive herself any more.

Regardless, if she wants to go on the trip, she needs to be more respectful to the man who is kindly offering to drive her.

Otherwise? She can make her own way there.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.