Asking for one hour of privacy in your own room is about as reasonable as requests get, and this story is about what happened when a father disagreed.

A student living abroad in a small single room with her bathroom inside it had a weekly therapy appointment she’d told her visiting father about in advance.

So when she asked him to find somewhere nearby for the hour so she could have the space to herself, he completely blew up on her. He was very quick to play the “I pay for your school card,” and she realized he was totally missing the point of her request.

But when he stopped speaking to her for the rest of the day, it became clear their relationship might need a therapeutic intervention of its own.

Keep reading for the full story!

AITA for asking my dad to leave my apartment during my therapy session?

I (23F) am a student abroad.

My father and stepmother came to visit me in my student housing, which is a small room with an attached bathroom and a shared kitchen down the hall.

So she let her family know she has business to attend to while they’re staying with her.

I have therapy once a week in the morning, which both of them knew about in advance.

It’s a hard and sometimes emotional process, so I asked them to give me the room during the session.

My stepmother said she’d go sightseeing.

Her dad wasn’t near as easy to convince.

My dad said he’d work in the kitchen but would come back in if he needed the bathroom or anything else.

The bathroom is inside my room, so I told him I’d prefer he go to a café about 500 meters away for the hour, or visit a museum and do his work in the evening, since his schedule is quite flexible.

But when she pushes back, he starts throwing accusations at her.

He said this was disrespectful and ungrateful, pointing out that he helps fund my studies, around $1,000 a month, and that he was also the one who pushed hardest for me to study abroad.

He said I was acting like a child, that a normal adult would just deal with it, and that I shouldn’t be emotional.

Now things are unbelievably tense between them.

He has not spoken to me since, or to anybody else really, which has been most of a day now despite my attempts at conversation, and it made the day miserable for everyone.

Earlier that morning I’d had a stressful start because I was preparing for the session and told them I wasn’t coming to breakfast, which he also called disrespectful.

Later, after a day of silence, I got a headache and slept for an hour, which they said was disrespectful too since I had guests.

AITA?

Her father really needs to get with the program here.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a professor who missed a major funding deadline after they told their graduate student to leave them alone.

What did Reddit make of all this?

No one deserves to feel like their therapy session is being listened in on.

Therapy is confidential for a reason.

It’s clear this student and her father need much stronger boundaries in place.

Her father is the one being disrespectful here.

With many other families, this request wouldn’t have caused near as much of a stir as it did in this one.

Clearly her stepmother had the decency to understand this student’s needs immediately, but her father really showcased just how sour his attitude really was.

She wasn’t asking him to pack up and find somewhere else to stay — she simply asked him to sacrifice one hour of his comfort so she could have a little privacy.

Some people just make everything about themselves.