Some kids go through a lot before they’re even teenagers. In this story, one teenage boy shares a sad tale of how his mom died when he was 9, and his dad remarried. Years later, he still doesn’t forgive his dad.

Now, he’s wondering if he’s making the right decision or the wrong decision by refusing to attend a party his dad and stepmom are throwing at their new house.

Keep reading to see what you think he should do.

AITA for refusing to attend a neighborhood party at my house?

I (17m) still live with my dad.

He and his wife moved to a new neighborhood recently and they decided they wanna throw a party to get to know the neighbors.

I don’t want to be because I know questions will come up about my “family” and the last time I was put in that position, a couple of years ago, I was so mad about them forcing me to attend a party with them that I brought up the fact my dad’s wife hated my mom for years, longer than my parents knew each other and longer than she knew my dad, and how dad and her had an affair while my mom was dying from cancer.

He will never forgive his dad for what he did.

I was 9 when my mom died and I found out about dad and his wife because he brought her into the house when mom was near the end of her life and the two of them were spending time together.

My mom would never have given her blessing for that. She hated that woman just as much as that woman hated her.

I have never forgiven my dad or looked at him in a positive light since.

When mom died I tried so hard to get put in foster care rather than live with them, but it didn’t work.

The stepmom tried to get him to warm up to her.

We ended up moving away a few weeks after mom died because the judgement they faced back home.

She tried to play the role of super “mom” to me. Trying to be SO involved in my life.

But I never accepted her or given her a chance.

They talked about adoption but quickly scrapped that idea because they were told I would be spoken to since I was 10 before they got married.

He also has two half-siblings.

They have two kids together now and that didn’t soften me to them.

I don’t blame the kids. But am I close to them? Nah. I make it a point to keep my distance because I won’t stick around and I won’t want a relationship with them and to keep my dad and his wife in my life as an adult, even if only occasionally for my half siblings.

A relationship with my half siblings is not important enough to have any contact with those two.

There were consequences to his actions.

After the incident of me telling people about the affair, I was grounded for so long, we had all kinds of therapy and I stuck to my word about hating them and finding them both disgusting.

But my life was also miserable because I was grounded, had everything taken from me for weeks.

I was offered a shorter sentence if I told her I loved her but I wasn’t going to lie, couldn’t say the words.

So it was almost 9 weeks of hell. And they ended up being judged by some more people.

He’s not going to go to the party.

So this time I’m refusing to attend and my dad is furious. He told me questions will be asked.

I said if I’m there questions will get answered and I won’t hold back on how I feel about them or what they did.

He told me to let it go after 8 years.

He even gave his dad an excuse to explain why he’s not at the party.

And I told him that’ll never happen. I told him I don’t want to pretend we’re a family when the truth is I’m ashamed to be his son.

He told me he still can’t let those questions about why I’m not there get answered and I’ll upset my half siblings by making this another fight.

I told him I’ll work and he can say that but he was still saying not good enough.

AITA?

I think he’s making the right decision by refusing to go to the party. Honestly, his dad should realize that having him at the party will probably make him look bad to all the party guests. It’s safer if he’s not there.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

One person suggests threatening to share how he feels about the dad and stepmom another way.

Here’s a suggestion to threaten to attend the party.

But this person knows it will be much worse for OP if he goes to the party than if he doesn’t.

And another person thinks it wouldn’t be weird at all if OP isn’t home.

The dad isn’t thinking this through very well.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.