diff --git a/lib/ancestry/materialized_path.rb b/lib/ancestry/materialized_path.rb
index a2fff5a6..c537a4e2 100644
--- a/lib/ancestry/materialized_path.rb
+++ b/lib/ancestry/materialized_path.rb
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ module InstanceMethods
       # Validates the ancestry, but can also be applied if validation is bypassed to determine if children should be affected
       def sane_ancestry?
         ancestry_value = read_attribute(self.ancestry_base_class.ancestry_column)
-        (ancestry_value.nil? || !ancestor_ids.include?(self.id)) && valid?
+        ancestry_value.nil? || (!ancestor_ids.include?(self.id) && (valid? || errors[self.ancestry_base_class.ancestry_column].blank?))
       end
 
       # optimization - better to go directly to column and avoid parsing