A man has been accused of ruining Christmas for his girlfriend’s children after he cancelled a planned trip to Disney World – but he claims to have a good reason
Cancelling Christmas plans at the last minute is bound to leave people fuming.
Whatever your plans are for Christmas, most of us like to commit to them well in advance. If you’re planning on going away for the festive season then you will have booked flights months ago, and even if you’re just popping over for dinner with family members who live close by, you’ll have told them in advance so they know how much food to cook.
One man, however, has thrown a spanner in the works for his family’s Christmas plans, as he’s decided to cancel them less than a month before the big day. To make matters worse, the plans were supposed to involve taking his girlfriend’s children to Disney World – leaving them devastated at the cancellation.
In a post on Reddit, the man said he has been with his girlfriend for three years and “gets along” well with her two children from a previous relationship. This year, he wanted to do something nice for his family and planned to take his partner and her kids to Disney World for Christmas.
However, things took a turn when his girlfriend said she would like to invite her ex-boyfriend, who is the father of her kids, as well as his new wife and their child. The man argued that he would prefer the holiday to just be for them, his girlfriend said her ex “really wanted to be there for the kids’ first trip to Disney”, so he eventually gave in.
But when it became clear that there was more to his involvement than first realised, the man refused to take part and ended up cancelling the whole trip. The ex-boyfriend was happy to pay for his flights but expected the man to foot the bill for his hotel and park tickets.
He wrote: “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 neighbour hotel at Disney Springs. It’s nice, still allows for early entrance, and has character events and such.
“It turns out that what was supposed to happen was that I cancelled our reservations at the Grand Floridian and used the money to pay for an extra suite at the other hotel. Their idea of him pitching in was paying for flights for his wife and kid.”
The man put his foot down and refused, but his girlfriend accused him of being “cheap” since he had the money to pay for her ex and his own family. Ultimately, the man chose to cancel the flights and the hotel and gave the park tickets to his girlfriend so she could pay for the rest of the trip herself if she still wanted to go.
Commenters on the post were firmly on the man’s side, with many saying that the trip to Disney World is a gift from him so he should be able to choose who he invites. Others also said that even if he did agree to the ex-boyfriend coming along, that doesn’t mean he should have to pay for him.
One person said: “You planned a trip for your family, and her ex tried to take over while expecting you to pay. Not your responsibility. Boundaries are valid; he can take his kids himself if it’s that important.” Another added: “Your boundaries are important. She overstepped big time.”
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