As children grow up and get married, families only get bigger and bigger.
The childhood home that may have been perfect when they were all kids can start to feel a little tight around the holidays.
And that’s just the situation that befell the family in this story, where the grown up kids all brought their partners home for the holidays, causing more than a little friction when it came to the sleeping arrangements.
Read on to discover the whole story.
My boyfriend Nathan (26) and I (24) have been together for 6 years.
This year, we traveled to his parents’ house for Thanksgiving.
For context, Nathan is one of four brothers: Alex (single), Jack (married to Jill), Nathan (me), and Luke (married to Millie, with a nearly 2-year-old).
Everyone lives out of state except Luke and Millie.
Nathan and I have the longest drive at 9 hrs.
Here’s the issue: Nathan’s parents, Mary and John, have only two guest bedrooms.
Three couples tend to visit at a time, meaning someone has to sleep on an air mattress in-between the rooms.
The first year I visited, I was told they’d rotate who gets the air mattress to keep it fair.
But after three years on it, we were told it was now “first come, first served.”
Nathan’s job doesn’t allow much holiday time, so we’re almost always last to arrive and stuck on the air mattress.
While annoying, we understood—it seemed logical.
Let’s see how this budding drama developed.
This year was different.
Nathan and I got Monday through Thursday off and would arrive first.
I talked to Mary about how we were to finally get a bedroom, and she laughed, saying, “Yep, first come, first served.”
Millie, who I’ve grown close to, knew we were thrilled about the prospect of getting a bed this year.
She even decided to come early too so we could hang out, and we planned I’d take the twin room, and she’d take the queen.
Here’s where it gets frustrating.
The day we left, I texted Mary our ETA.
A few hours later, Millie texted me, saying Luke had spoken with Mary, who mentioned Jack and Jill would get the queen room and Luke and Millie the twin room—leaving Nathan and me on the air mattress again.
Luke called Mary out, reminding her of the “first come, first served” rule, but she suddenly claimed she “never said that” and justified her decision because Jack and Jill would be staying an extra day.
(For context, Jack and Jill were arriving a day later than us, so this reasoning felt like an excuse.)
Uh-oh. Read on to see how this woman reacted.
When we arrived, Nathan brought up the rule again, but Mary got defensive, claimed she didn’t remember ever saying it, and refused to budge.
I said several sarcastic comments as I felt this was really unfair.
I pointed out rules are rules, until they didn’t serve Jill.
And that we always do it a certain way UNTIL that means Jill has to take the air mattress and she could come up with any justification but that doesn’t make it fair.
I even pointed out it’s silly for us to now have to board our dogs, and drive 8 hrs before anyone else got here just to change the rules now.
She had plenty of time to bring this up with our many conversations leading up to this.
She became increasingly sassy about the situation, leaving us feeling defeated and, frankly, a little targeted.
AITA?
Sometimes it just feels like it’s one rule for one person, and a whole other rule for everyone else.
Mary shouldn’t be changing the accepted rules like this.
Let’s see what Reddit had to say about this.
This poster agreed that the situation was totally unfair.
While this person wondered if some other prejudices were at play.
And others encouraged them to make their own arrangements.
The moral of the story?
This couple should not let the older siblings walk all over them.
If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.
