Blended families come with their own unwritten rules, but there’s always someone who seems to be keeping score.

When a woman saved up for months to reunite her dad with all three of his kids for the first time in a decade as a Father’s Day gift, she didn’t expect her mom to walk away with hurt feelings.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one.

AITA For Excluding My Mom from a “Father’s Day Gift”?

My (22F) dad (46M) has three kids, my oldest sister (26F), me, and my younger brother (19M).

My sister is NOT my mom’s kid. She is from my dad’s first marriage, and he is no contact with her mom.

She further explains her family’s complicated history.

My mom and my sister have never been close, and often butt heads when around each other. She’s not interested in being her “step mom.”

It’s been about 10 years since my dad has seen all of his kids in one room. Or even hung out with them.

The closest he’s gotten is the coincidental face time while I walk through the room.

My sister and I are very close, so we call almost every day, but now I live on my own, so he barely talks to her.

So one day, a family wedding brought them all back together again.

Our cousin is getting married in May, and my sister actually decided to come visit to attend the wedding, so we extended the time frame so she could hang out with everyone for a couple days.

I planned an early birthday present/Father’s Day present for my dad (his birthday and Father’s Day are very close together), and we’re going to surprise him with a trip to Top Golf, that I’m paying for, just him and the three kids.

They made sure to still include their mother in the plans as much as they could.

We’re not completely excluding my mom from the whole visit — we’re all surprising him at a bowling alley, Sunday is Mother’s Day, so we’re all going to brunch with her as a family of 5, and we’ll probably be hanging out at the wedding.

My mom actually helped a lot with setting stuff up so that her coming up here will completely surprise him, so initially, I thought she understood.

I just wanted my dad to have a good time with his kids for the first time in ten years.

The weekend before, I offered a trip to the zoo (that means a lot more to us than it does to a stranger) for me, her, and my brother, to “even it out.”

It soon becomes clear that her mother isn’t happy at all.

Now she’s been throwing passive aggressive comments at me, and making me doubt that a “just kids and dad” outing was a bad idea.

Like I said, I thought she understood. And at no point did she just ask to come as well.

She knows she only had the best intentions, but her mother doesn’t seem to understand.

This is all coming out of my wallet, I’ve saved a lot of money and time, and she’s not offered to help at all with the expenses, or I think I’d feel worse.

She’s taking her vacation to go on a trip with my dad the month before, and this outing is happening in the morning (cheaper Top Golf rates), so I didn’t think she’d want to take any more time off.

AITA for excluding her?

Sounds like what this family really needs is a good heart-to-heart.

Redditors chime in with their takes.

More family member doesn’t always equal more fun.

This commenter seems to understand exactly what this woman is going through.

Father’s Day is supposed to be about fathers.

It kinda seems like her mother is going out of her way to be upset.

Can’t her mother just let her father have the spotlight on his special day?

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