Every child deals with their parents’ divorce differently.

It also depends on how well they get along despite the separation.

In this boy’s case, he is doing well, but his stepbrother is acting very clingy and entitled towards him.

He even wanted some credit for the big gift he gave his dad for his 40th birthday.

Now he’s wondering if he was in the wrong for “excluding” him.

Let’s analyze the situation.

AITA for getting my dad a big birthday gift I knew he’d love and not including my stepbrother?

My parents are divorced and share custody of me (16, M) which means I spend a week with my dad and a week with my mom and rotate it around.

They get along pretty well so there are times I might spend more time with one over the other and they make it up without drama.

So it’s not a bad position to be in and I know how lucky I am.

He sounds like a very sweet kid, and this reflects on how thoughtful his gifts are.

When I was 10 my dad got married again.

I get along fine with my stepmom but I don’t like my stepbrother (15, M).

I know he’s a little younger than me and maybe I’m a jerk for our bad relationship but I don’t like him.

The moving in together transition was ROUGH.

My stepbrother wanted us to share my room instead of having his own.

I didn’t want to but he brought his stuff to my room anyway and tried to move in.

His stepbrother has a pattern of invading his space.

My dad stepped in and told him there was a whole room waiting just for him and tried to make it positive but my stepbrother resisted.

My stepmom wanted us to trial run sharing but dad knew I wasn’t on board so he said it shouldn’t be forced.

She gave in and made her son move into his own room. But my stepbrother acted out for ages after that.

Whenever I left for mom’s I had to lock my door, same if I went to school or a friends house.

That sounds like normal sibling stuff, but it was a bit deeper than that.

Any time he was home when I wasn’t, he would try to mark his territory in my room and even moved some of his stuff in.

Then another time he trashed my room.

Dad made him clean up after himself and my stepmom didn’t complain or anything but idk, I got the vibe she felt like I was unfair to him.

Then my stepbrother got jealous any time I got 1:1 with dad even though he got it too.

His stepbrother is pushy.

He wanted to tag along for some of it. Dad told him we had family time for that stuff but it was only fair for us both to get 1:1 time with me.

My stepbrother looked for me to say I wanted him to come but I didn’t.

He whined about that for ages after and gave me such a hard time.

He said we were brothers now and I didn’t act like his.

That’s maybe what he wanted but I didn’t.

His stepbrother really made his life more difficult.

He was super clingy too.

Wanted to visit my mom’s house when I was there.

Wanted to tag along with my friends and bring his along.

If we played video games for an hour he’d expect me to spend more and more time with him or include him in other plans when we finished.

But he managed.

My dad never forced me to include him in that stuff.

He did make me promise that I wouldn’t lose my temper if he annoyed me and to tell him or my stepmom if he was bugging me and I kept that.

He also asked me to give family time some enthusiasm so maybe things could develop and I did my best.

I find him too much and annoying when he doesn’t get his way.

He’s easily the worst part of being at dad’s. I see him as someone I tolerate because I love my dad.

But that’s it.

Then his dad’s birthday came along.

Which is why I didn’t include him in my birthday gift plan.

My dad’s a big hockey fan.

He doesn’t really ever attend any games because he prefers to spend his money on other stuff.

So for his 40th birthday, I got him tickets and a jersey signed by his favorite player.

It was expensive and it was big. Easily the biggest gift he got.

My stepmom and stepbrother were upset I let it be a gift just from me.

Basically, both of them have this pushy personality.

She said it would have been better if it had been from both his boys and that way he could have taken me to one game and my stepbrother to another without feeling bad.

She said I knew he’d love it and should have considered the benefit of it being a joint gift.

My stepbrother said he hates me and I ruin everything.

My dad doesn’t know. He was so excited.

Now he doesn’t know how to feel about his decision.

But I think he might find out about their issue with it soon because my stepbrother especially has changed toward me and he ignores me now which I prefer.

But I know it might bother my dad. I don’t think he’ll care that I didn’t include my stepbrother but I know things could get messy because of my choice.

AITA?

Making him feel bad about being honest is not a good lesson to teach her son.

He should tell them to try and do better than him next year.

Let’s see how Reddit feels about this situation.

A reader shares their thoughts.

Exactly.

This commenter shares their opinion.

This is an interesting take.

Another reader chimes in and offers advice.

I agree. Divorce can be really hard on the kids.

His stepbrother needs to understand that identity theft is considered a crime.

I mean chill, bro.

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.