Family vacations sound exciting until you realize the guest list includes strangers and the dress code includes a tuxedo.

This 14-year-old gets invited on a luxury cruise, but when his mom insists on formal family events, would you go along or push back?

His hesitation grows as the 16-day trip starts sounding less like vacation and more like mandatory bonding in formalwear.

See why one free cruise became surprisingly hard to accept.

AITA because I don’t want to come along on a cruise with my “step” family?

I (14, m) need some help here.

My mom divorced my dad a while ago and she’s been dating this new guy for a few months now.

He’s alright, I don’t have a problem with him, and I’m glad my mom’s happy.

His family must be quite wealthy, his parents have a huge house, his dad drives a Porsche and so on.

This means vacations will be fancier now, as well.

They invited us to come on this cruise this summer, where a lot of their family come together and they’re paying for the whole thing for us.

Sounds cool at first but it’s 16 days, and I’ll be stuck on a ship with a bunch of people I barely or even don´t know, and I feel weird about having to hang out constantly with his whole extended family and no one my age.

But there’s more.

And yesterday I found out that there will be these fancy dinners and events every three days.

And my mom told me I have to come along with them everytime and have to wear a tuxedo because “we’re part of the family now” and all the other men will wear one.

That’s when I said “Wait, what?” I hate formal clothes.

I’ve always hated shirts and suits and this stuff and my mom knows this.

He just doesn’t want to go.

I told her “that’s enough, not gonna do that” and she just got mad and said I’m being ungrateful and difficult and I would embarrass us in front of them.

But I was never asked if I want to come in the first place, so why should I play along with this?

The idea of being stuck in a suit or tuxedo or whatever the difference is for 5-6 hours every few days to sit through dinner and then opera singers or something like this afterwards sounds like absolute torture to me.

It’s my vacation. I don’t want to feel miserable and uncomfortable.

They’re constantly arguing about it.

We’ve had a few fights about it now and every time it’s the same thing: “You’re part of the family, this is what the family does, you have to be there too.”

She doesn’t care that I would be miserable during these evenings and now she already gets quite mad when I bring that topic up again.

Tomorrow she’s taking me to the mall to buy a tuxedo and I honestly just want to hide.

She’s mad at me for “making a big deal out of it” but I feel like tomorrow is the last chance I have to avoid this torture trip?

AITA?

As a kid, he may not have much of a choice but to go, so he might as well try to find the fun in it.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about this.

A reader shares their thoughts.

This commenter lightens the mood.

Another person thinks he should go.

Here’s another take on the situation.

A reality check.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a friend who is upset they missed out on cheap festival passes due to her pal’s indecision.

Sound advice.

He was grateful for the trip, but the long cruise, unfamiliar relatives, and repeated formal events made the whole thing feel overwhelming.

Redditors generally said he was not wrong for feeling that way, while many still encouraged him to give the once-in-a-lifetime trip a chance.

Free vacation or not, sixteen days in a tuxedo-adjacent family summit is still a lot to unpack.