A woman recently asked for advice on a tricky subject: Expensive gifts and children. Her wealthy sister keeps buying her kids very expensive presents, and she wants it to stop. The sister? She doesn’t see the problem.
Here is what the woman had to say.
She is 35 years old and has three children with her husband, who’s 31. Her daughter is 12, and her sons are ten and eight, respectively.
Her sister married her now-wife around a year ago.
Each time the woman’s sister visits the woman and her family, she brings gifts that are very expensive. Presents that the woman could only dream of gifting her children.
As it so happens, her sister’s wife is a “big spender” and earns quite a lot of money.
“She would bring expensive clothing items like purses, dresses or makeup products for my daughter, games for my son, sometimes electronic devices,” the woman said.
“It is confusing for my kids because they have been acting differently since she has been doing this.”
“They push for items and ask for things way out of our budget.”
Both the woman and her husband have to explain to their children, each time they ask, that they cannot afford things like their aunt can.
The woman has asked her sister in the past to cut down on her gifts, but she has not listened.
Recently, the sister bought the woman’s daughter a coat that cost at least double the rent of their house!
The woman was shocked and called her sister into the kitchen and explained that she needed to cut back on the expensive presents.
She explained that it was impacting her children and told the sister that she and her husband have to explain the value of money every time they receive an expensive gift.
“I also told her it was harmful and asked her to please stop getting them gifts that were this expensive,” she said.
The woman’s sister apologized, explaining that she just wanted to make the children happy.
Later in the day, the woman received a call from her sister-in-law, who said that her comments had really upset her sister, and she had cried when she returned home.
Her sister-in-law said that she was disappointed in her and asked her not to contact her sister unless it was to apologize.
The woman knows that her sister is a sensitive and emotional person, but she struggles to see what she has done wrong. She had simply asked her sister to stop buying expensive gifts as they presented a luxury to her children that she herself could not afford.
Her sister-in-law is generally a calm person but often inserts herself into any argument between the woman and her sister.
As such, the woman asked the Reddit community whether she was in the wrong for asking her sister to stop buying gifts.
Fortunately for the woman, most of the commenters were on her side, but the response was mixed.
“You made a reasonable request, and your sister’s response is to cry to her wife, and her wife’s response is to cut you out until you apologize for making a reasonable request,” said one person.
“Neither of them has given a single thought about you.”
“She was doing a generous thing and only got critiques in return. Of course, she’s emotional about it (as if being emotional is some bad thing),” said another commenter.
“It’s not her fault that (you have) issues with money and explaining things to (your) kids.”
What do you think? Is the woman wrong for asking her sister to stop buying gifts for her children?
Source: Reddit
