A father of four recently asked the Reddit community if he was wrong for not buying his youngest son a car, just like he had done with his older siblings.
The man has a good reason, he says. His parents gave the boy $5000.
Here’s what happened.
The dad has five children, and his fourth child, Jack, recently celebrated his sixteenth birthday.
For his three eldest children, the man went with them to pick out a car after they acquired their driver’s licenses.
The cars had to be in good condition, but they would also always be used cars. They each cost around $10,000.
For his oldest son, the cost was a bit less, and for his daughter, a bit more due to inflation.
Now the man’s parents have always preferred Jack, his youngest, over his other children.
“We have had several fights about this over the years, and it has really strained my relationship with my parents,” he said.
For the sixteenth birthday of his older children, his parents gave the kids cards with a few hundred dollars in each of them.
The man never said anything about this as it is a “pretty standard grandparent gift.”
When Jack turned sixteen, however, the man’s parents gave him a check for $5,000, which surprised and annoyed the man, though he said nothing at the party where he was given the gift.
When he spoke to his parents about it, they said they had some liquid cash at hand after selling some land.
It caused a fight, during which his parents called him an entitled brat!
As the man and Jack were getting ready to go and look at cars for him, he told his son to bring the check he had received from his grandparents.
“He asked why, and I said because I would pay for half the car, and his grandparents were paying for the other half,” he said.
“Jack was upset because he thought the $5,000 was just for him and that I paid for the cars for all his older siblings in their entirety, so I’m treating him unfairly.”
The man pointed out that his other children did not receive such a big amount of money from their grandparents, so spending it on a car would even things out.
Jack pointed out that “two wrongs don’t make a right,” which led to an argument. By the end, Jack was upset and debated whether he wanted a car anymore or not.
The man explained to his son that if he changed his mind, he could let him know.
From there, Jack called his grandparents, who in turn called the man and labeled him a jerk for trying to “steal” their gift.
His parents went on to say that it was cruel to deprive one son to keep things equal between a number of children.
The grandparents then asked the man if he would take money from a college fund if his child got a scholarship. He was labeled a hypocrite when he said that it was not even remotely similar.
He and Jack have since discussed why it was wrong for his parents to give him such a large sum of money.
The check was voided, and the man gave his son $300 in its place while also agreeing to pay for his car in its entirety.
The man asked the Reddit community if he did the right thing and although they thought he should treat the kids fairly, they were concerned about the grandparents.
“If you cannot get your parents to treat all your children fairly, limit their contact as much as you can and open a savings account for Jack with that money,” said one commenter.
Another noted, “if you don’t treat Jack exactly the same as you treat his siblings, you are doing the same thing as your parents, only worse because you are supposed to be his main trusted person.”
What do you think? Should the man have allowed the son to spend the money as he pleased?
Source: Reddit
