The girl only had two months left on her passport, thus airport authorities did not allow her to travel
This picture has been used for representational purposes, Picture/ AFP
A family vacation is an exciting getaway for everyone in the house. It takes months of planning to make sure everything goes smoothly without any glitches. And when the glitches happen, it turns it to a major disappointment for everyone.
A man, his wife, and children aged nine, 11 and 14 were looking forward to their vacation to a foreign destination until he realised their eldest child’s passport was expiring in two months. To make matters worse, he had to leave her at the airport and go ahead with his wife and other two children, he shared in Reddit.
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The man has used his savings from many years for arranging the trip only to miss on a key detail. His eldest daughter, from his previous relationship, had only two months left for her passport to expire. Even as the man had asked his wife to provide the girl’s passport details, he only got the expiry date from her. He had one year after he got the information and went ahead with planning the trip.
Everything was going as per plan until they reached the airport and got their passports checked., As per their policy, airports permit people with six months left for their passport to expire to travel. As the authorities checked the 14-year-old girl’s passport, the man realized that she has only two months left on her passport validity. Thus, she was not allowed to travel with her family.
But the girl had earlier been on a trip to a different country with her mother but her half-siblings had never been for an overseas holiday. And if cancelling the trip was an option for the man, expensive bookings made were non-refundable. His wife has told him that if she was in his place, she would cancelled the trip. She also said that it would be difficult for her to handle two young children on such a trip for the first time.
After a brief discussion with his wife, the man decided to ahead with the trip, leaving the girl alone at the airport but asked his father to take her home. Before leaving he promised her to take her for another trip. Even though he said that he was miserable to go on a planned vacation leaving his daughter behind, he had many texts from his relatives who questioned his decision.
When the family returned from vacation, the girl refused to see or speak to her father. She also said that she wants to change her school as other children teased her for 'lying' about going on vacation. The man was quoted in the news website as saying, "I'm absolutely gutted. Only my younger kids actually enjoyed the trip and my wife and I are extremely upset that my daughter isn't talking to us."
Although he was certain that he made the right decision at that time and currently regretting it, he turned to Reddit for advice and got divided opinions. One user said, "I don't blame this man one bit for still going on the trip". Agreeing to the point, another user said, "If they cancelled the entire trip because the ex wife lied about daughter's passport, there is a strong chance that the other children would resent their half sibling for ruining their trip. They would be too young to understand it wasn't her fault."
The man also received flak from some users on his decision, where one user said, "Losing thousands of dollars and missing a big holiday would be totally worth it to me to have ALL my kids with me, and not leaving one behind." Another user said, "She's 14. All she knows is that dad and his new family left her at the airport."
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