Sometimes, what feels like the right thing to do doesn’t always go over well with everyone else.

So, what would you do if your niece needed glasses and contacts, and even though her dad wanted to give her the cheapest option, you had the means to give her more?

Would you just follow her dad’s orders? Or would you step in and buy her what she really needs, even if it caused problems at home?

In the following story, one aunt finds herself facing this very decision and decides to handle things her way.

Here’s what she did.

AITA for buying my niece 2 pairs of glasses and letting her get contacts

I have a 12-year-old niece, Haley. Haley lives with her dad, stepmom, and 4 younger step siblings (2 boys and 2 girls, don’t know the exact ages, but they seem to be between 5 and 10). Her mom passed when she was 3.

Haley’s dad and stepmom are not well off. They live in a three-bedroom house, so Haley shares a room with her stepsisters.

The kids get one pair of shoes, reuse school supplies until they’re falling apart, and don’t get new school clothes if they still fit.

I am doing a lot better, but I refuse to help him with money because if I give him money with the direct instructions to get Haley some decent shoes or a nice jacket, I expect the money to be used on Haley, not split between all 5 kids.

Since no one else could take Haley to the eye doctor, she did.

He also dislikes me because he blames me for CPS investigating him and his wife for leaving the kids home alone every day.

Haley stays with me after school and sleeps over a few nights a week because I won’t drop her off if there’s not an adult present.

I told her not to get on the bus under any circumstances, so they can’t tell her I wanted her to take the bus home that day.

Haley and two of her step-siblings needed glasses. Nobody was able to take Haley for her eye exam and to get the glasses, so they asked me to take her and gave me $100 with instructions to get the cheapest pair we could find.

When her BIL found out about the contacts, he had a lot to say.

I was driving Haley to the eye doctor, and she told me she really wanted contacts, but her dad said no.

I talked to the receptionist, and they were able to get her in for a contact fitting that day.

After her contact appointment, we checked out the glasses and she found 2 pairs that she really liked, so I told her to get both.

I took her back after school a few days later and picked up a few boxes of contacts.

Her new glasses came in a few days ago, and she loves them, but her dad is furious about them.

Then he found out about the contacts (I guess Haley was keeping them in her backpack and never told him about it), so he told her she gets to keep one pair of glasses and everything else has to stay at my house because he’s sick of me and Haley rubbing her stuff in her step-siblings’ faces.

Now, CPS is involved again.

Haley responded by packing most of her stuff and walking to my house. Now she’s refusing to go home.

CPS came for another investigation and was told by the kids that Haley doesn’t live there anymore, which is not helping my BIL’s case.

Now my bil wants me to make Haley come back and stop spoiling her so she won’t rub it in her siblings’ faces anymore (her rubbing it in their faces means she put both pairs of glasses on her dresser, but it wasn’t fair because the other kids could see it).

AITA?

Yikes! This whole situation sounds like a nightmare.

Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit feel about everything that happened.

This reader thinks Haley would be better off living with her aunt.

That’s a great question.

For this person, he’s forgotten that he’s her father.

Great way to look at it.

She did nothing wrong.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.