Man dumbfounded by in-laws’ ‘disrespectful’ international vacation request: ‘You have every right to say no’

A man is wondering if he was wrong to deny his niece a trip to France. 

He explained the situation on Reddit’s “Am I the A******? (AITA)” forum. He is from France, while his wife is from the U.S. When they were planning to visit his sister back home, his brother-in-law insisted they take their niece. However, the Reddit poster felt the niece would have too hard a time adapting to French culture. 

“I live in the U.S. with my spouse,” he explained. “She is American, and I’m French. We just came back from a family visit that ended up in some argument with our relatives over taking our 17-year-old niece to a planned trip to France to hang out with my family for four weeks. 

“Our niece is a good kid. She listens to us for the most part, but there are things she just doesn’t do and gives us some attitude about when asked to — like taking her shoes off, not eating on the couch, asking adults for food instead of snacking, staying at the table until the end of the meal, waiting for everyone to start eating, setting the table, asking if she can watch TV instead of turning it on at will.

“Arguing with adults over this type of trivial thing is not even a thing in my family,” he said. “No fault of her own, [as] culturally, kids are raised differently here and there, and I’m fine with it, but this is also why I don’t want to bring her with us on our trip. My sister has a big property with farm animals, a bed and breakfast, and all the kids are used to doing chores and don’t argue because it’s a communal thing we do together.

“When my brother-in-law asked if I could take our niece on our trip to France, I said no. He insisted I ask my sister before I answered, and I said that I wouldn’t. He started screaming, so I answered why, mentioning that French families operate differently, and it wouldn’t work for anyone.” 

Redditors thought he had every right not to take his niece. 

“You have no obligation to do any of this, and her dad was very disrespectful to you in his response,” a user wrote

“Even if they were perfectly behaved, you have every right to say no,” another said

“You are not obligated to do this. Period. It’s not your child,” someone added

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