Big milestone events can unravel quickly when old family wounds show up uninvited.

At her graduation ball, one 19-year-old carefully separates her divorced parents and hopes to finally get one photo with both of them.

Then her father misses the father-daughter dance, blames a table-number mistake, and starts dredging up the divorce instead of staying for the celebration.

Check out the full story here.

AITA for shouting at my father for what happened at my graduation ball?

“I’m 19 and my parents have been divorced since I was 6. Their divorce was messy.

I wanted to invite both of them to my graduation ball and so I reserved two tables as far away from each other as possible.

I also asked my mum to send my dad an email – I wanted them to organize one photo which I would put on my desk at uni (I don’t have any photos with both my parents and me in it and I really wanted one).

The ball is a tradition in my country and the program is usually very full and entertaining.

It’s really hard to plan but I was super excited about finally having my own.

My father arrived pretty late – two minutes before the official start. I only hugged him and then ran to make it for our opening dance number.

Through all the program (which included me singing on the podium), I couldn’t see my father anywhere.

This guy…

He didn’t even show up for the father-daughter dance – after standing alone at the dance floor for a few minutes, my grandpa finished the dance with me while I was crying.

My dad showed up about 15 minutes later. He danced for a minute with me and then took me to sit down somewhere.

I asked him where he was the whole time and he started shouting that the dance was 20 minutes early (I had no idea, I didn’t have my phone on me and we left the timing to the moderator we hired) and that his table didn’t exist.

Obviously, I was very confused.

Firstly, I apologized a few times and then asked him to clarify so that I could help him. It turned out that the decorations company we hired messed up – they put Number 5 on my father’s table instead of 15.

What a jerk!

I wanted to find my father some other table, but he only went on about how the organization was horrible (me and my classmates organized it) and that he was going home.

It was 10 pm, the ball ended at 2 am (it’s customary for the family to leave after midnight).

I was horrified and apologized more, but he wouldn’t be convinced to stay. As we were walking down the stairs, I asked him if he could stay for a minute for that photo.

At that point, he became angry and started shouting at me about the details of his divorce (that my mum moved away, that she wanted money, etc.). I was crushed.

The next day, I sent him a message.

I apologized again and told him how the whole thing looked from my perspective. I couldn’t help but also text him that while the whole affair was unfortunate, there were steps he could’ve taken to avoid it (arriving earlier, asking a helper to help him find the table, finding me…).

He replied only “I don’t see it that way.”

These people SUCK.

After that, I found out that his wife made an official complaint to the principal.

I found it embarrassing since now everyone knew about it. I called my father and we argued for 2 hours.

I still think that what happened wasn’t my fault but he feels as though I’d humiliated him for not making sure he had a place to sit.

He was also angry that I asked him for the photo since my mother wronged him so much.

I feel a bit guilty about shouting at him.

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AITA?”

Reddit users shared their thoughts.

This person said she’s NTA.

Another individual agreed.

This Reddit user shared their thoughts.

Another person spoke up.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a sister who refuses to give up her own holiday traditions to spend the day with her family at her brother’s cabin.

And this reader didn’t hold back.

She apologized repeatedly for the seating mix-up, but still felt her father could have asked for help instead of leaving and turning the night into an argument.

His wife later complained to the principal, and a two-hour phone fight only deepened the tension between them.

A misplaced table number somehow ended up seating the entire divorce at graduation.