Hosting family gatherings can be stressful, especially when you’ve spent days preparing and want everything to go perfectly.

But what if, after all your hard work, a family member made it clear they didn’t even want to be there and then pushed to bring an untrained pet into your home?

Would you let them have their way?

Or would you cancel the dinner altogether?

In the following story, one couple finds themselves in this exact situation and decides enough is enough.

Here’s how it all went down.

AITA for uninviting my parents to Christmas dinner

So my husband is cooking a huge dinner for Christmas.

He’s a great cook, and this was supposed to be a gift from him for them.

He’s worked on prep for a week, and we’ve spent a lot of money on it.

I’ve deep cleaned our home and decorated it, a lot of work went in to our hosting them here tonight.

I just uninvited them, and I have mixed feelings about this.

About a week ago, my mom tried to rearrange the date, the dinner, the food, etc.

Basically, behaving like a person being forced to do something they don’t want to do.

The menu includes their favorites.

We offered adaptations of foods, times, location, etc.

The mother wanted to bring her dog.

We tried to make it something nice for them.

My dad was looking forward to it, but mom wasn’t, no matter how we offered to tweak it.

Last night, my mom asked if she could bring her dog, and I said no. Her poodle is the love of her life. I get it.

The last time it was here, it peed everywhere. It even destroyed one of our dog beds.

I don’t want to deal with it in my home.

I got a snide text last night from my mom.

One line was that they would come even if their dog wasn’t welcome. She doesn’t want to be away from her dog on Christmas.

I replied that I was looking forward to having them over.

It was a reactionary response as I didn’t really know how to reply.

After rereading the text, they decided to cancel the dinner.

This morning I reread the text, how rude the tone was, and that from the wording how much my mom didn’t want to come.

I showed my husband the text.

We decided to have a quiet dinner alone. We’re going to make “to-go” plates for my parents and bring them to them.

My dad will greatly appreciate it. My mom is complaining we canceled.

I literally feel like my mom just chose a poodle over us.

They would be here for an hour. One freaking hour.

I guess I could have watched it that long, but I didn’t want to.

AITA?

Wow! That was a nice gesture, but the mother sounds like something else.

Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit feel about their decision to cancel the plans.

This is pretty sad.

So true!

Here’s a great thought.

This person sees both sides of it.

Their plan will work better for everyone.

There’s no doubt the mother would’ve found other things to complain about even if she let the dog come.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.