As time goes on, many people will find themselves becoming keen to rethink the traditions that once subtly shaped their lives.
This is particularly true in the case of a practice as old and venerable as weddings, but one emerging trend of holding “child-free” ceremonies seems particularly controversial.
Because while some may want children to join everyone else in celebrating a union, others will see them as over-complicating the affair whether they’re well-behaved or not. And considered how boring weddings can be when you’re a child, they present a lot of opportunities not to behave.
But as we’re about to see in today’s story, even those who might agree with the desire for a child-free wedding in concept may feel differently once their own children are excluded.
After several miscarriages, one bride’s sister-in-law successfully brought a rainbow baby into this world.
As the bride explained in a Reddit post , this boy has since turned four and is in a situation where both his immediate and extended family treats him like a miracle child and a “king.”
Unfortunately, this has led them to excuse any of his misbehaviours and he has become loud and destructive as a result.
But whenever the bride has addressed this in the past, her brother has told her she’s just jealous because she’s not capable of having children.
But while this isn’t the reason why the couple didn’t want any children at their wedding, this child is indeed the focal point of the pushback against the idea.
That’s because both the bride’s brother Paul and her mother expect his son to be invited regardless of the couple’s overall plans.
As the brother reportedly put it, “You can have your ‘child free wedding’ but you’re gonna have to make an exception for my son and you know why.”
However, the bride and her fiancé maintain that this wouldn’t be fair to her other guests (and particularly her in-laws) and held firm that the child would not be invited.
Apparently, this sparked an ultimatum that has rippled throughout the bride’s entire family.
Paul has said that he won’t go if his child isn’t invited, which has led both the bride’s parents and some of her aunts and uncles to drop out in turn.
Although her fiancé told her that they’re being unreasonable and disrespecting their wedding, she nonetheless feels devastated that so many of her family are turning their backs on her as a result of not making this exception.
In her words, “My family is divided saying I’m ruining my own wedding basically saying this is all on me.”
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But if this situation put any doubt in the bride’s mind that she’s in the right, the Reddit community she reached out to hoped to put that to bed.
Her family described her set boundaries as “dying on a hill,” but commenters figured that was more true of them than her.
As one user said , “Honestly if this is how they’re behaving, you don’t want them at the wedding, they’d just ruin the whole event. It’ll probably be a lot more peaceful if they don’t show up.”
Others have also been quick to point out that this push for the exception isn’t actually for the child’s benefit.
In the words of another person, “The kid is 4 and probably doesn’t want to sit through a wedding anyways. They’re just mad that they can’t use their kid to pull all the attention onto themselves.”
So while it remains unclear how this wedding is going to go, it seems that if nothing else, the couple will be joined by those actually interested in celebrating their union.
h/t: Reddit | AITArainbow2016
