Woman kicks FIL out of Thanksgiving celebration after he refuses to remove his shoes. AITA?

Is there anything worse than a house guest who refuses to follow a basic rule, thus forcing you to lay down the law?

In a popular post on the AITA subreddit, a woman asked if she was wrong for telling her father-in-law to leave the house after he refused to take his shoes off. She wrote:

"AITA for telling my father-in-law to leave my house because he wouldn’t take his shoes off?"

I (28F) hosted Thanksgiving with 16 people. I made all the food and desserts. I spent hours cleaning my house and decorating before people arrived. My only rule I have for my house is no shoes inside my house. It really grosses me out and I have a baby who crawls on the floor. I let this rule slide occasionally for things like furniture delivery/appliance delivery.

Stuff like that where a worker needs traction on their feet. I’d never want anyone to get hurt. I just clean after and they’re courteous, to not step on my area rugs. Anyways, all went well. The guests were arriving. I told everyone beforehand my policy. Most are familiar with it as they are family and have come to my house before. The problem arose when my father-in-law came.

He walked straight into my kitchen with his muddy shoes on. I gasped as he’s been to my house before. I told him nicely oh haha you are so excited to eat that you forgot to take off your shoes. He said, “I am not taking off my shoes. I am here for a gathering. You don’t get to tell me to take them off.” My anxiety started kicking in.

He told me I was a horrible person for making people take off their shoes and I need to stop being selfish. I proceeded to tell him he had to leave if he wasn’t going to follow my rules and talk like that to me. My husband followed my lead. Well, he left. Before he left he proceeded to walk all over my carpets. I sent him a really mean text saying that he was just acting childish. He made the day horrible. I told him off.

Am I the AH for asking him to remove shoes? Should I have let it be? I really did try to do my best to make guests feel okay about my rule. I let them know in advance. I bought new socks, slippers, and had booties by the front door for those who needed it. I don’t know why he just didn’t put the booties on then. Am I in the wrong?

Should I have just let it slide? If you’re hosting, should you just expect people to wear shoes? No one else had an issue with this. I’m heartbroken and feel like I did something wrong. Am I an AH?

The internet had OP's back.

74Magick wrote:

NTA it's your house, and he doesn't get to be a jackass and tell you what he's going to do in your house, especially with filthy shoes. I can't stand being barefoot in my house, or any house really, so I have indoor flip-flops all over the place. Tell him to go to Golden Corral and ruin their floors.

Astreja wrote:

NTA - deliberately walked in with muddy shoes. If he actually needs indoor shoes because he wears orthotics for a foot problem, he could have asked if there was somewhere to clean and dry the soles before coming in.

SnooPuppers5314 wrote:

I’m Canadian so find the idea of wearing shoes inside absolutely disgusting. No one I know does it. As my mother aged, she had problems with her feet and needed more support. So she made sure to bring clean, inside-only shoes to switch into upon arriving at someone’s home.

Mizu005 wrote:

NTA, he thought he could twist your arm into letting him break your house rules because 'haha, she surely wouldn't dare kick me out from a family gathering so now I can disrespect her rules' and found out he was wrong. He fucked around and he found out, end of story.

Ashamed_Ad8220 wrote:

NTA your house your rules. If everyone Respected your rule, he should as well. Your husband (his son) agreed with you. That's all you need to know you're NTA.

OP is NTA, her FIL was being super immature.