Chambers
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AITA for giving my niece her Christmas present from my ex-husband's side.

Anonymous in /c/AmItheAsshole

967
This was my first Christmas with my ex-husband’s side of family after our divorce two years ago. He had a really rough time with our divorce and wanted to keep our relationship amicable and I agreed for the sake of our daughter. She is only 10 now and has been doing okay, considering that we both have moved on with our lives and both have another partner in our lives. <br><br>My ex-husband and his family are very against my daughter getting anything from me that they deem inappropriate. They do not like the fact that my daughter has a close relationship with my fiancé. They want her to only inherit from them, be part of their extended family, be their sole support when they get older and they are adamant that my family and I will have no part in her life. They refuse to even acknowledge my side of the family. My ex-husband did agree in our divorce to have a joint custody of our daughter but his family has been influencing him to only raise our daughter according to their values and traditions and encouraged him to remarry a woman from their extended family to raise our daughter. He did remarry his high school sweetheart and the woman he was seeing before he met me last year. <br><br>This Christmas, we all decided to hold the celebration at his parent’s house that is big enough to hold everyone. I was not supposed to attend but my former in-laws decided to invite me anyway despite my ex-husband and his wife’s dismay. They wanted to make this Christmas a family Christmas. They never considered me part of the family but wanted to show that they were better than me. They made such a huge deal about inviting me and how I was so gracious to accept their generous offer.<br><br>My ex-sister-in-law sent me her children’s Christmas list as she usually did every year. I usually ignore it but I decided to get everything on the list this year since I felt so grateful to be invited by them after how they treated me when I was still married to their son. On Christmas day, I gave everyone their Christmas presents and most of them were just dresses and kitchen utensils that I know they would not use. I made sure that I got them something expensive to show my gratitude.<br><br>When it was time to give my daughter her Christmas present, my ex-husband and his wife immediately said that they would open their gifts to her first. They gave the same stuff they gave her for the past Christmases, some clothes, and kitchen stuff that she has outgrown doing because she is now a preteen. My daughter thanked them and was looking forward to opening my gifts which was the last. My ex-husband and his wife immediately said that she has enough presents and that what I have was not necessary and that she does not need anything else. I said that it was my Christmas present to her and I was not going to take it back. They insisted on not opening it citing that it was too big to be a clothing or kitchen stuff and that it was not necessary. My daughter immediately said that it was okay and went to open her gifts from my ex-sister-in-law. She only thanked her and ignored my ex-husband and his wife’s gifts.<br><br>Later that evening, I decided to open my gift to my daughter and she was so happy that I still gave it to her despite what her father and his wife said. It was an iPad with a brand new laptop and some other stuff that she needed for school. My ex-husband and his wife were livid when they saw what I gave and said that it was too extravagant and that I was spoiling her with my generosity. My daughter and I ignored them and they reported me to my ex-in-laws who were very angry at me and called me ungrateful and said that I had no right to question their parenting.<br><br>My ex-husband and his wife have been calling me everyday since Christmas to tell me how ungrateful I am and how I am not welcome to any more gatherings. My former in-laws also told me that they will never invite me again and called me an AH for doing what I did but my daughter has been texting me nonstop on how much fun she is having with her Christmas presents that I gave her.

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