Imagine building a thoughtful present for your significant other. Imagine being so proud of it that you have to share what you built with someone, but you don’t want to ruin the surprise, so you tell a sibling.

That’s what happens in today’s story, but it didn’t turn out the way the thoughtful husband expected. His brother is trying to convince him to give the gift to his niece instead of his wife.

Let’s read all the details.

AITA for not giving the “dollhouse” I built to my niece, but to my wife as a gift?

(It’s NOT a dollhouse, but I didn’t want anyone to think I was being misleading on purpose by saying I built a house)

I (28M) made my wife (28f) a replica of a house that’s known to fans of a musician, but wouldn’t mean much to others.

It’s about 2 feet tall and wasn’t very complicated to build, but my wife had said a few times over last year that she thought it would be cool to have for little trinkets.

She’s like a crow with her trinkets, I love it.

His wife doesn’t know, but his brother does.

She didn’t know I was making it for her, but I did sneakily involve her in its creation through having her make a couple Tiktoks when we were out together so I could get the colors right.

She has no idea, lol.

I was excited, so I showed a picture to my brother.

He told me it was cool, but didn’t get the purpose.

His niece wants the house.

He showed it to my niece Ava (13f) who knew what it was and said she wanted one too.

My brother asked if I would give it to Ava for her birthday.

I said no, it’s for my wife, but I could make one with Ava. It would help teach her some basic woodworking skills which they don’t do in schools here anymore.

I’d like that.

This brother doesn’t understand that it’s NOT a dollhouse.

Brother said if it was so easy then I could make a second one for my wife and just give this one to Ava since her bday is the end of the month.

Again I said no, this was done specifically for my wife.

He seemed to accept that but then came back to me and said “Isn’t it a little weird to make a dollhouse for an adult woman?”

I told him it’s not a dollhouse, just a fancy shelf.

He argued that makes it worse, because Ava would actually “play” with it.

Ava keeps pestering her uncle about the “dollhouse.”

He must have gone to complain to mom about it (he is the younger brother) because mom called me to tell me that it was “stupid” to give my wife a dollhouse.

I tried to explain that it’s not a dollhouse but she just kept saying “that’s stupid.”

This weekend I was at their house and Ava kept bringing up the house and laying it on thick with statements like “I’ve alway wanted one just like it.” She kept asking why my wife wanted a dollhouse.

I said it’s not a dollhouse, but she kept asking why she needed a dollhouse.

He doesn’t want to be a bad uncle.

I told my brother that he was encouraging his kid to be manipulative and I really didn’t like it, so I was going to leave.

He told me that I was dangling the house over her head like McDonald’s and teasing her and that it made me a bad uncle.

Being a good uncle is important to me and I do feel for the girl because she’s a big fan too.

I admit I have a blind spot for this because I don’t have kids and maybe I shouldn’t have shared the picture with my brother to begin with.

Am I really the jerk for not just giving it to her? Yes, it WAS easy to make and I COULD make another quickly.

He never should’ve showed his brother the picture. I’m worried his brother or Ava will tell OP’s wife and ruin the surprise!

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This reader is pretty sure what house OP built.

The brother sounds entitled.

This person reassures OP that he’s a great uncle.

How could he be in the wrong when he offered to help his niece build a house just like it?

The niece won’t use it as a dollhouse either.

His brother getting their mother involved says a lot.

His wife deserves to have nice things too.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.