Parent Urged To Block Ex's Vacation With Their Teen for 50th Birthday Party

A single mom has been backed online after revealing her ex-husband's wanted planned to take their teenage daughter skiing on the day of the mom's milestone birthday.

Posting on Mumsnet on Sunday, under the username Jumpingbean1810, the mother explained that her ex-husband is planning on taking her only daughter skiing with his new wife and two children during half-term. This date happens to fall on the mother's 50th birthday, and she already has plans to celebrate.

According to the post, she asked her ex-husband if he could change the length of the trip, suggesting he go for only five days instead of seven. However, he refused, saying he didn't want to "lose 2 days of skiing."

A U.S. Census Bureau report from 2020 relating to 2018 data said there are 12.9 million non-custodial parents in the country.

Nearly 4 in 5 custodial parents are mothers, and approximately 3.3 million fathers have custody of their children.

The number of children living with only one parent has increased over recent decades. About 7.6 million children lived with their mother only in 1968, compared with 15.3 million in 2020.

The number of children living with their fathers only more than quadrupled from 0.8 million in 1968 to 3.3 million in 2020.

In her post, the mom said: "I don't want [my daughter] to feel torn so if he digs heels in should I encourage her to go skiing and accept she won't be there for 50th, or should I say, you go on your holiday and we'll go on ours and she can ski with you another time? (Which will cause [an] explosion)."

Among the 113 comments in the thread, most people said she was right to want her daughter over for her birthday. One user, W0tnow said: "I say you dig in your heels and he loses 2 days. It's a reasonable compromise."

While AFS1 wrote: "I suspect it would be pretty difficult to book a 5-day skiing holiday. Most packages are 7 days. Could he go at Easter or New Year instead?"

Another user, sonjadog, commented: "I don't think asking them to cut off two days of their holiday is fair. So the option is either she goes with them or stays with you. I would do which of them she prefers."

And tillytown wrote: "Why can't she stay for your birthday and then travel by herself to go skiing? Her dad can pick her up from the airport."

Another user, MissAmbrosia said: "I would encourage her to go and celebrate before or after. It seems like it's half term and he's not doing it to be spiteful."

While Yupsuuuure commented: "Whose contact time does it fall over? There's no reason why skiing is more important than a 50th birthday as you said you want to go away with her - you're only 50 once. I think id be guided by who she's actually supposed to be having contact with over that time."

Newsweek was not able to verify the details of the case.