Parents often threaten to cancel Christmas, but one man took the drastic step and actually canceled his holiday plans.
It’s rare for someone to have a reason compelling enough to cancel such plans, yet many people understood why he did so in this case. The man has been in a relationship with his girlfriend for three years and has built a decent rapport with her two children from a previous relationship.
With these relationships in mind, he organized a trip for the four of them to visit Disney World during Christmas—a dream destination for any child.
However, his girlfriend complicated matters with an unexpected request: she wanted her ex, who is the father of her children, along with his new wife and their child, to join them on the trip. Her rationale was that her ex “really wanted to be there for the kids’ first trip to Disney.”
Although this request was far from ideal, the boyfriend agreed to include them in the plans.
The situation deteriorated when he discovered that his girlfriend’s ex was only willing to cover the cost of flights for himself and his family, expecting the boyfriend to pay for the rest of the expenses.
On Reddit’s ‘Am I The As*hole’ page, he explained: “He really can’t afford to stay where we were going to stay, so he and [my girlfriend] Ashley decided that I should change our reservation and stay somewhere cheaper. Fine, I don’t really care.”
“I wanted to treat the kids to something awesome, but as long as we stay somewhere nice, I’m happy. We chose a good neighbor hotel at Disney Springs.”
“It’s nice, still allows for early entrance, and has character events and such.”
He soon found out that there was a misunderstanding between him, his girlfriend, and her ex. They had assumed that the money saved by opting for a cheaper hotel meant he could afford to book two suites—one for himself, his girlfriend, and the kids, and another for the ex, his wife, and their child.
“Their idea of him pitching in was paying for flights for his wife and kid,” he explained further.
This was the breaking point for him, leading to his decision not to finance the ex and his family’s stay.
Ultimately, he canceled both the flights and the hotel reservations. He offered the park tickets to his girlfriend in case she wanted to go and pay for everything on her own.
Public sentiment on Reddit largely supported his decision.
“He wants you to pay for his hotel by downgrading yours? LoL. Did he expect you to pay for his passes too? What a leech,” commented one user.
Another added, ” A gift you are gifting shouldn’t be on someone else’s terms.”
“I can’t believe they all EXPECTED you to pay for most everything, even the ex and his new family,” exclaimed another Redditor.
“People need to stop trying to take advantage of someone’s generosity.”