If someone gives you items for your kids that their kids no longer need, are you free to do with those items what you like once you no longer need them?

That’s the question in today’s story when one woman decides to sell the items, and her brother-in-law doesn’t like it.

Let’s see how the story plays out…

AITA For telling my sister-in-law that her “side hustle” makes her a bad person

My brother (33M) and his wife (30F) have 2 young boys (3 & 1). My wife and I have a 5-year-old son, so over the years we have given them quite a few items that we no longer used/needed. Crib, clothes, toys, various baby items, etc.

Most of the things were just taking up space in our house, and we knew they would put them to use so we had no problem giving them away.

We visited them a couple weeks ago for their 3-year-old’s birthday party.

During the party, SIL mentioned that she has been selling off a bunch of baby stuff as a “side hustle.” Both she and my brother are the youngest of their families and she said that they get so many hand-me-downs from their siblings that they couldn’t keep track of them all.

The SIL has sold some of the things OP has given her.

Her solution was to start selling these gifts off online to make a few extra bucks.

She was basically bragging about it.

I told her that is a pretty bad thing to do considering that these items were given to them as gifts that they willingly accepted and were expected to use. I asked her if they had sold some of the things we have given them.

She laughed and said that she was sure she did because we’ve given them a lot of stuff.

OP wishes he had known she was going to sell the items he gave her, because he wouldn’t have given them to her.

I told her that if I had known she was going to sell those items off, I would have given them away to someone else or donated them to a local non-profit that helps young mothers in need.

She got defensive and told me that it’s not like she’s making a lot of money off these things, just a few bucks here and there.

I told her that the people buying those items are probably the same people who would benefit from getting them for free and that she’s taking advantage of them.

OP continued to argue with his SIL about selling the gifts.

She went off about how hard things are with the economy right now and how they need all the help they can get financially.

Mind you, both she and my brother have college degrees and work full-time. I know raising kids is expensive, but they aren’t in dire straits.

I told her that she probably shouldn’t expect us to give them anything else in the future, and I would probably suggest to my other siblings that they refrain from doing so as well and look into other options for donating things.

The argument continues…

She got defensive again and told me that she doesn’t feel like she’s doing anything wrong.

I told her she’s entitled to feel that way, but my opinion of her as a person is now lesser because of this.

She said that selling things they don’t use to make a few bucks doesn’t make her a bad person.

I told her that considering they were given these things for free, it kind of does.

His brother ended the conversation.

By this point other people had noticed our conversation, and my brother stepped in to end the conversation before things got too heated.

He told me I should mind my own business and that if I don’t want to give them anything else in the future, that’s my choice but that I took this too far by calling his wife a bad person for selling things they don’t use.

The sister-in-law could’ve given the items away or refused them when they were given to her, but I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s wrong to sell second hand items you don’t need.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story…

This reader makes a good point.

Another reader thinks the opinion changes depending on whether or not you have kids.

This reader called OP “petty.”

Another reader thinks the sister-in-law is “tacky.”

This reader makes a good point about donations.

Once you give somebody something… let it go!

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.