It’s tricky balancing your time to give the kids equal attention.

This dad argues that they should skip one of his son’s football trips to see his daughter’s annual theater show. But mom insists that one parent should go with one child so both kids can do their respective events.

Who’s more sensible here? Read the full story below and weigh in.

AITA for skipping my sons football trip?

My wife (39F) and I (38M) are having a disagreement about what to do in this situation. My son, who is 8, lives for football.

It was announced in May that a yearly football festival would be held in Blackpool (UK). We live across the country, so this would be a weekend trip for us.

One of us goes with him, and he and his team play in the festival, as well as take part in other fun activities like bowling and things like that. He’s done two of these now and would be really disappointed if we couldn’t go.

However, my daughter’s (5) dance show is already scheduled for that same weekend. She takes two dance classes at the same dance studio: cheerleading and musical theatre. They work all year round for the show.

They buy costumes and rent out a local theatre for two afternoon performances for all the girls of all age groups to participate in. It’s a whole big event. My daughter loved it last year, which was her first show. She also rocked it and stood out above everybody else.

My wife thinks one of us should go to one event and the other should take her to the other one, which would usually make sense.

This man shared his argument as to why they should skip his son’s football trip.

However, my son does a lot of competitions, events, and other activities throughout the year. One of us always goes to his training sessions to watch him, and we almost always both go to his competitions and local football festivals, dragging his sister along.

He does a ton of these things. This one is bigger, teams come from all over the country, but he still does a lot of similar, more local events. A bigger one he did in the middle of last year was in Glasgow, where teams came from neighboring cities for the event.

My daughter, on the other hand, has nothing else like this.

She goes twice a week, and we don’t get to see anything. There’s a “watch week” once a year, where we get to sit at the side of the class and watch, but that’s it. Everything leads up to this one show.

But his wife insisted that both kids should go to their respective events.

My wife’s argument is that, regardless of whether one of us misses it or not, she still gets to do the show. My son, however, would miss the entire weekend event if one of us didn’t go.

However, there’s just nothing else like this for her. There are no mini-shows throughout the year. She never gets to show off (which she loves doing—she’s a performer).

To me, this is the one and only thing she gets. If we miss this, we’re missing everything of hers for the entire year. There’s nothing else.

If my son misses this one, we still get to see and take him to all the other things he does throughout the year.

He also plays golf and competes in that as well. They both take swimming lessons, but not in a competitive manner, just lessons to learn how to swim.

Both have valid arguments, but no kid should miss out.

Other people in the comments are sharing their two cents.

Here’s an idea.

This makes sense.

Another reader takes the wife’s side.

This one is weighing in.

And here are some valid questions.

Both kids come first; it’s not a competition.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.