There are too many stories on Reddit that center around parents mistreating their kids and then laughing about it afterward.

Heck, there are too many stories like that all over the internet, not just on Reddit.

This one is no different.

OP and her brother are close.

I [20 F] am an older sister to my little (biological) brother (17 M) who finished high school last year. My little brother and I are really close.

He says I’m the best friend he has and he loves me more than anyone (of course this is not true, he has many friends of his own).

Note that our step-dad and my brother have a negative relationship for the most part. Our bio mother and step-dad got together soon after our bio dad and mom divorced when we were little.

My brother thinks that step-dad and mother were seeing each other before our real parents divorced and tbh, I think that might be true. Not certain, though.

Her brother wanted to split the cost of a car with his parents.

My brother has been asking our step-dad/mother if he could get a new car for his grad party since last year, and he said he’d pay 50-75% with his own hard-earned money while they paid the rest.

They said no.

At first they said no, but he kept negotiating until they said yes.

I have a car but I had been working for one, they helped me pay off for it. So my brother’s arguments with our parents got heated after awhile (one time I told my brother that I’d help him pay off expenses for a good car once I got my own.

He hugged me and said I didn’t need to worry and that he owed me way more than I owed him).

But he continued to press our parents all of last year until they gave in and said yes like they did for me.

Then his stepdad took his money and bought a car for his wife instead.

Anyway, my step-dad, mother and brother compromised and said they’d get him the car in 2021 so that people don’t gawk at him at the graduation party.

June this year my brother and step-dad/mother are still on about the car, now the arguments getting loud and lasting hours until evening.

My step-dad was getting into screaming matches with my brother over it but they reached a final compromise of the car being bought last week.

The fated morning comes and my brother wakes up to our step-dad and mom guiding him outside to… a car. But not his, our mother’s.

Step-dad used his and my brother’s money on a dumb prank, bought a completely different model of car, and said it was for our mother.

Our mom and step dad just laughed and kissed each other.

OP’s brother said some terrible things.

My brother didn’t lose it, he didn’t even look angry.

He just looked dead in our step-dad’s eyes and said, and I’m not joking, verbatim: “you might think I’m stupid, you might think whatever. But I’m just better than you, bro. You know that, I know that, and our mom is an idiot for staying with a prick like you. But I’ll make you wish you’d never met us. I promise you. You might be laughing now, but you’ll be crying later.”

He then walked off, not even looking back at them as they stared horrified.

She said she didn’t blame him.

They asked me what was that about and I, feeling terrible for my brother, said they had it coming and not to be surprised. So now they grounded both of us.

I’ve had to explain the situation to my friends as I can’t see them anymore but I feel so bad for my baby brother and they back me up on this and ask me to comfort him as much as possible.

But our parents are so mad, and they can’t see that my brother had his heart crushed. AITA?

Does Reddit think these kids should have handled things differently? Let’s find out.

The top comment is about as angry as OP and her brother.

Most mothers could never.

No one is giving the parents one single break.

They say pranks like this just aren’t funny.

In fact, what they did is illegal.

I want to know how you ground a 20yo.

That’s a feat of control right there.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.