Even good friendships can feel overwhelming when someone starts wearing out their welcome.

So, what would you do if a friend started coming over almost every day, even though you weren’t inviting them and needed time alone to feel comfortable in your own home? Would you go along with it to spare their feelings? Or would you speak up and draw the line?

In the following story, one teen finds herself in this situation and tries to set boundaries. Here’s what happened next.

AITA for telling my mom I don’t want to have my friend over that much

I (15f) was adopted when I was 12. I also have 2 little sisters (6 and 4) who are bio sisters and were adopted when they were 2 and newborn.

Our mom is a really great mom. She takes us to the beach to make sand castles and have picnics when it’s warm, and we take day trips to the mountains to play in the snow, and we do movie nights with pizza every Thursday.

There’s also a 1-bedroom apartment above the garage, and our aunt lives there with our cousins (7, 10, and 12), but they’re in the house with us all day. It’s a lot of fun.

She made a new friend named Mia.

I was diagnosed with autism a few months ago, and my mom signed me up for a group therapy thing for me to learn communication skills, coping skills, and stuff like that.

I made a friend in the group (Mia 16). We hung out outside of group a few times, and my mom invited her over for dinner with us, my aunt, my cousins, and my other aunt, who lives close to us.

Something kinda important to the story is that Mia doesn’t have a great family. They haven’t really done anything, but they don’t really care about what she does, where she goes, or if she gets sick, or anything.

Mia didn’t have a great home life and started coming over most days.

So she came to my house and saw all of the people and chaos and everything, and she told my mom about her family, and my mom started letting her come over after group, then just started letting her come over whenever, so she’d come over like 4 or 5 days a week.

I like Mia, but I don’t like having people in my space that much.

At least when my family’s here, I can go to my room if I need space, but when Mia’s here, it’s like she’s always with me.

Her mom understood, but Mia… not so much.

I talked to my mom about it, and I told her I don’t want Mia here all the time because I need my space.

She apologized for letting Mia come over a lot without asking me, so now Mia only comes over if I invite her.

The problem is Mia’s upset that she can’t come over anymore, so she’s been getting mad at me when I see her at group, and she says I’m being selfish by not letting her come over anymore.

AITA?

Yikes! It’s easy to see why Mia is upset, but she should understand that her friend needs space.

Let’s check out what the folks over at Reddit think about what’s going on here.

This man is autistic himself and thinks no one is in the wrong.

For this reader, it’s good that her mom is supporting her.

Here’s a mother whose daughter enjoys her own space, too.

According to this comment, the friend doesn’t get to act like that.

She did nothing wrong. In fact, she handled that situation better than some adults would’ve handled it.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.