Girlfriend gets angry at 36-year-old dad for attending his 8-year-old son's birthday party with his ex-wife: 'According to her, we will be giving off "happy family vibes," which hurt her feelings.'

You have to take on a lot of responsibility when you date somebody who has kids. You may not be responsible for their daily care or take on a parental role, but you have a duty to those children not to be a long-term negative disruption in their lives. It's natural for a child to resent their parent having a boyfriend or girlfriend initially, but if they continue to resent them for years, there might be something wrong with the relationship itself.

A relationship with a parent will not work if the partner who doesn't have kids resents their partner's kids and their responsibility for those kids. It's natural for a partner to feel some level of sadness that they're not the #1 priority in their partner's life, but a little sadness doesn't make or break a relationship. Long-term resentment absolutely will, and no kid deserves that kind of treatment.

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AITA for attending my kids birthday party with my ex wife?

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The kids in this story are in a rotten situation. Their parents broke up two years ago, and six months after the breakup, their dad got with a woman who resents them. She resents them so much that she doesn't think her boyfriend should go to his son's birthday party because it will make her feel bad.
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