When her daughter’s behavioral issues spiraled out of control, a mother made the difficult decision to dip into her college fund for a specialized treatment program.

But now, her late husband’s parents are furious, accusing her of favoritism and “ruining” her daughter’s future.

Read on for the story!

AITA for taking my daughter’s college/future savings account

My late husband and I have 3 kids, Elena (16), Lucas (15), and Elizabeth (10).

My husband passed 4 years ago and had a large enough life insurance policy that I was able to pay off the house and had enough left over to nearly triple the kids college funds.

There is enough money in each of their accounts for them to go to a public university debt free or at least 2 years in a private university without scholarships or financial aid.

Elena has always had mental health/behavioral issues.

She’s been in therapy since she was 4 and until last year was attending an alternative school.

Over the summer, she stole her dad’s car and crashed it after I said she couldn’t go on vacation with her friend.

Luckily she and the people in the other car were okay but my insurance wouldn’t cover the repairs to the other car.

Oof.

Her behavior escalated after that, and her therapist and I decided it would be best for everyone if she went to a residential program for kids like her.

She recommended a few places, I got to tour the facilities and speak with the staff and even some students, and I chose what I believe is the best program for us.

A couple weeks ago my husband’s parents asked how I was able to afford everything with the car and Elena’s school.

I make about $70k a year in an area where 100k for a family of 4 is considered low income so it’s a fairly valid question.

I told them that all of this had to come out of Elena’s savings account.

There should still be enough in there for her to go to a community college and transfer to a state school but she’d have to get a job to help pay for her expenses.

Gotta do what you gotta do.

They were so upset that I took this all out of Elena’s account.

They were saying it’s not my money to give (everything was in my name), that she’s a child and I can’t screw her over for life over a mistake,.

That it’s favoritism by only taking from her account and not her siblings.

They asked how she feels about it and I told them she doesn’t know yet.

We will break it to her when she’s doing better in her program.

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Now they’re even more upset with me and I wanted to know if I was wrong.

Reddit couldn’t hold back on this one…

Most people say she isn’t the AH here.

It’s really no one else’s business.

But some people think she’s the AH for sending her daughter away.

Sometimes tough love means tough choices.

The cost for this one seems pretty high.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.