AITA for cancelling the entire vacation when I found out that my stepdaughters deliberately hid my daughter’s passport to get her to stay home?

A man shares how his family vacation was derailed after discovering that his two stepdaughters, Monica and Leah, deliberately hid his daughter Jessica’s passport. The two wanted Jessica, who often babysits their children, to stay home with the kids instead of joining the trip.

Despite earlier arguments where they tried to convince Jessica to stay, the man insisted everyone should come along. On the day of the flight, when Jessica’s passport was “missing,” the stepdaughters pressured him to leave without her. Eventually, they confessed to hiding it, and he cancelled the entire trip in anger.

Now, his wife and stepdaughters are upset, claiming he overreacted and punished them for prioritizing their children’s comfort.

‘ AITA for cancelling the entire vacation when I found out that my stepdaughters deliberately hid my daughter’s passport to get her to stay home?’

I’ve been married to my wife Beth for 5 years. I have a bio daughter named Jessica (she’s 18). And I also have two stepdaughters named Monica and Leah. They’re 25 & 28. Both are single moms and live with us currently.

there’s been issues about my stepdaughters asking my daughter to babysit the kids. Jessica didn’t have a problem with it at first since this is what she does to earn money but since her stepsisters don’t pay her much, she’d just refuse to babysit. We worked this out by having my wife take care of paying for the babysitting.

I planned a family vacation for 3 days and everyone wanted to go. However, Both Monica & Leah suggested that Jessica stay home and watch the kids since Beth doesn’t want her grandkids to come. They said it’s because the kids are used to Jessica and hiring another babysitter would cause issues.

And also said that Jessica isn’t too “fond” of our destination but it was obvious that Jessica wanted to go. They insisted and Beth offered to pay her double and there was just..a lot of back and forth on this til I demanded they stop bringing it up.

We were supposed to go last week but when everybody had bagged their bags and was time to go, Jessica found out that she didn’t have her passport on her. We searched her bag then went home and searched there. Beth and my stepdaughters kept insisting that we go back to the airport or else we’d miss our flight.

They insisted that Jessica stay at home with the kids. They even told the new babysitter to go home cause she was no longer needed. I refused to go and kept searching for the passport til Monica admitted that she helped Leah hide Jessica’s passport to get her to stay home with the kids.

I was livid I tried to get her to tell me where it was but she said Leah had it, Leah denied so I threatened to cancel the vacation that’s when they gave it back. I decided to actually cancel the vacation and blew up at both of them and berated them.

They stayed upstairs for a while and Beth refused to speak to me and said that I punished my stepdaughters for worrying about their kids and wanting them to stay with someone they know. I got told I overreacted and ruined the trip for everybody.

Check out how the community responded:

Interesting_Bug_8878 −  NTA. To be honest, I would have kicked your wife and lazy no-good stepchildren out right then and there and ended the marriage. If they were 12 I might understand this level of entitlement and immaturity. But in their late 20s??? And WTF with your wife??? She should have roasted them for pulling this BS.

ravenofmyheart −  NTA. You don’t *just* have a stepdaughters problem, you have a wife problem. I would rethink your current family situation, and how your daughter is being treated.

Jumpstart_55 −  Your stepdaughters both s**k and your wife is worse. NTA and you should be reconsidering this marriage 😡

BFIrrera − . NTA. Leave Beth and her daughters and you and Cinderella get out of there before it’s too late.

Stlhockeygrl −  Nta – except for how you let them treat Jessica. SHE should get taken on vacation. Your wife and her kids and grandkids should stay home with their spawns.
If the parents are sooo worried about their kids that Jessica is the only babysitter, THEY need to stay home.

Potential_Shelter624 −  YTA You’ve heard of Cinderella. Protect your daughter get her TF out of there.

YouthNAsia63 −  Rebook the vacation. Someplace your daughter would like. It will be a less expensive trip this time because the passport stealing stepdaughters and their spawn can stay home and think about what they did. You didn’t ruin anything. Your stepdaughters did. NTA

Wickedlove7 −  NTA. Your stepchildren and wife however are. You’re step children are spoiled e**itled brats. Your wife ……backing them up that your child should stay home to stay home to watch their children. How about Beth, misses the vacation and babysits her grand kids. Or how about the parents do it.

They don’t get to force their step sibling to miss vacation because they want her to babysit. They wanted to not have to pay since your wife pays her for it. They knew they’d have to pay good money to someone to watch their children.

Honestly tell your daughter not to help them anymore. They lost that privilege. I also would buy her a safe keep her valuables in it since they are known to steal
Honestly I’d divorce and kick them all out. Well minus your bio child.

snag2469 −  Nta. Wtf time to kick the stepdaughters to the curb.

T_G_A_H −  NTA. This is Cinderella, The Prequel.

Was the cancellation justified, or could there have been a better way to handle the situation? Is it fair to call this sabotage, or were the stepdaughters just concerned mothers? Share your take in the comments!