Imagine sharing custody of your teenage son with your ex.

If your ex wanted to take your child on an international trip over a school break, would you be okay with that even if it meant you would miss out on some of the time that’s supposed to be your time with your son, or would you refuse to let your son go on the trip?

In this story, one mom is in this exact situation, and she doesn’t want her son to go on the trip. She’s not sure if she’s making the right decision.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITAH? Wanting time with son.

AITAH? My sons step mum said to me her and my sons dad were planning to go to Australia and that my son wanted to go with them but he would talk to me about it.

He’s 13.

I said no for now but if I was working and couldn’t get time off I’d make exceptions.

They are planning on going during the school holidays, which is meant to be when i have him and dont get to see him outside of this as they relocated and he wanted to go with them.

The situation has escalated.

I got told he wouldn’t be happy and that I need to put his needs above my own. And that I was holding him back.

I did get upset at this and told my sister, who messaged my ex.

And she told him it wouldn’t go well for him in court as it was parent alienation.

This has now resulted in mediation initiated by ex.

She doesn’t want to miss out on time with her son.

I didn’t think I was being unreasonable. As it’s meant to my time with him and they’re already cutting my time with him short.

The time we have together is non recoverable. And it’s important to me to have, even if we’re not doing anything exciting or interesting, just hanging out.

I let him go to Singapore during my time and I said I was ok with it as long as it didn’t happen all the time. The Singapore trip was this year and the Australia trip would be next year. So AITA?

The ex needs to plan trips with their son when it’s his time and not her time. It’s not fair to make her give up her parenting time.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Here’s a recommendation for mediation.

One person thinks the mom sounds awfully self-centered.

Another person is completely on the mom’s side.

But this person thinks the mom really is being a jerk.

They need to work this out in court.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.