Imagine planning a family vacation, the first family vacation you’ve ever taken with your kids. That would probably be pretty exciting!

What would you do if your spouse wanted to bring her ex’s kids along on the trip? Would you think the more the merrier, or would you refuse to babysit your spouse’s ex’s kids?

In this story, one man is in this exact situation, and he does not want his wife’s ex’s kids to join them on their family vacation, but his wife keeps trying to convince him to let them come too.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITA For not wanting to take my wife’s ex’s kids on a family vacation

My wife (43F) and I (45M) have been married for 8 years and have 2 kids (8 & 6). My wife also has a 10-year-old daughter with her ex.

My wife and her ex were never married, but her ex also has 2 kids (12 & 13) that my wife was basically a stepmom to.

We live in a smallish town (9-10 thousand population) so all the kids go to the same school district and see each other regularly.

My wife obviously is still in contact with her ex regarding their daughter and we routinely get all the kids together, including ex’s, for birthdays and stuff like that.

They think their kids are finally old enough for a family vacation.

My wife and I have been wanting to take a family vacation for a couple years now but have waited until our youngest is a bit older.

This would be our first family vacation.

We decided to start planning something for spring break 2026 since all the kids have time off from school and our youngest will be 7 by then.

This sounds like a fun family vacation, but it also created a problem.

We decided to take the kids to Disneyland (the California one). We booked everything a little over a month ago.

Of course, my wife talked with her ex about taking their daughter. So, the plan was my wife and I taking our 2 kids and my wife’s daughter.

Sometime between now and then, ex’s kids and my wife’s daughter got into an argument while daughter was at ex’s house and my wife’s daughter used the “Yeah, well I’m going to Disneyland and you’re not” line.

That opened up a whole can of worms and now ex’s 2 older kids are jealous and making life difficult for daughter every time she spends time at ex’s house.

His wife and ex came up with an interesting solution to the problem.

My wife and her ex have been talking about this and somehow they came up with the idea that ex’s 2 older kids could come with us on our trip in order to smooth things over.

My wife told me about it the idea a couple of days ago.

Here’s her rundown: Ex would pay for all expenses for the older kids. Flights, extra hotel room, tickets to the park, spending money, etc. But he wouldn’t be coming with. So, instead of our first family vacation, we are supposed to bring 2 additional kids that neither of us are biologically related to.

He’s not on board with this idea at all.

I immediately shot that idea down.

It’s not that I have anything against ex’s kids, they’re fine. But this idea changes the trip completely and, for me at least, turns it from a family vacation to a borderline nightmare I want nothing to do with.

My wife got upset with me because I “didn’t hear her out.”

But to me, there’s no amount of planning or attention to details that is going to make adding 2 additional kids to this trip worth it.

Now, the family trip might not even happen.

I know my wife is still close to ex’s kids, she basically raised them while they were together.

Wife and ex haven’t told the older kids about the idea yet (thank God) but she’s still trying to convince me that this is a good idea and everything will work out.

I don’t want to, but I’m thinking of just cancelling the whole thing unless she agrees to keep our original family plan. But I know if I do that then I will be the bad guy to everyone involved.

He should NOT be required to babysit his wife’s ex’s kids on a family vacation just so they don’t feel jealous. The better solution would be for the wife’s ex to plan his own family vacation with his daughters.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Here’s a suggestion to talk to his daughter about the consequences of bragging.

It really would be a lot harder with more kids.

Here’s a suggestion for the ex to take his kids.

I’m not sure the dad in this story would want to take a family vacation at the same time as his wife’s ex.

Bragging has consequences.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.