November 26, 2024 at 1:21 pm

Adult Children Exclude Partner From Family Events, Leaving Her Feeling Like It’s Time To Take A Step Back

by Heather Hall

Source: Reddit/AITA/Pexels/RDNE Stock project

Sometimes, the hardest part of a blended family is maintaining relationships with adult children.

So, what would you do if, after years with your partner, their adult children made it clear they didn’t consider you part of “the family?”

Would you continue trying to make a connection?

Or would you step back and respect their boundaries?

In today’s story, one partner faces this exact dilemma with the holidays just around the corner.

Here’s what’s going on.

AITA for refusing to interact with my partner’s adult children?

My partner and I have been together for 10 years.

He has two adult children, 1 son and 1 daughter.

In the 10 years we’ve been together, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve met with his kids, usually for his birthday or a holiday.

In the past year, his son got married and there were several events surrounding the wedding.

My partner initially stated that I was invited to the events but on the day of one of the smaller events, I was informed that I was not invited to the dinner because I’m not family.

The daughter made her feelings known.

Fast-forward a few months to Labor Day Weekend.

My partner included me in a group text that he labeled “All Family.”

The following is an excerpt from the group text.

To add some context, the family owns a lake home that is shared.

They use a shared calendar to indicate when they will be using the house, and his daughter selected Labor Day weekend.

Partner: Regarding Labor Day, when you put “family,” does that include Chris and me?

Daughter: No, that’s our immediate family. If you want to come up, you are free to!

Understandably, she was upset and now wants nothing to do with his kids.

After her reply, I left the group chat.

Now the Holidays are approaching, and my partner doesn’t understand why I don’t want to associate with his kids.

I explained to him that I feel it’s clear that his kids don’t want me around them.

I provided him with the two examples above, and I told him that I know he’s stuck in the middle, but forcing the issue isn’t good either.

AITA?

It’s one thing to not like her being with your father, but it’s another to blatantly disrespect her like that.

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit feel about her situation.

Having answers to these questions would be very helpful.

Source: Reddit/AITA

This person didn’t read the post correctly.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Very valid point.

Source: Reddit/AITA

As this person points out, the partner should stick up for her.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Ten years is a long time to still be against your father’s partner, so there may be more to this story.

Either way, the kids should be more considerate of other people’s feelings.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.