Imagine graduating from college and having expensive student loans to pay off. Would you tighten your budget to pay off the loans, or would you turn to your parents for help?

Would it make a difference if you found out your parents were better off financially than you originally realized?

In this story, one woman is in this situation, and at first, she tried to pay off the loans by herself. Now that her husband shared some additional context about her parents’ financial situation, she’s thinking about asking them for help.

Let’s read all the details.

WIBTA for asking my parents to take back their Parent PLUS Loans?

I (27F) recently married my husband (29M).

A major strain in our relationship is my student loan payment, which is almost $800/month and eats into our budget significantly.

This includes $80,000 refinanced from $30,000 in federal loans originally in my name and $50,000 in Parent PLUS loans my parents took out for my college because they had no college fund or savings set aside to support me.

When the loan repayment pause ended, they immediately asked me to refinance their loans together with mine all under my name.

She thought this seemed fair.

I agreed, feeling it was fair since the loans were for my education and thinking that they were not in a financial situation to handle the payments.

They promised to contribute to payments when they could afford to but I never got a follow up on this so I have always presumed helping me was out of reach for them.

Recently, our finances have been tight; unexpected medical bills and moving costs have stretched us thin, making the loan payment a real burden.

My spouse has been frustrated with my parents for “dumping” their loans on me, but I have consistently defended them, believing they couldn’t afford to help and that it was my responsibility to pay back my student debt.

This doesn’t seem fair at all!

Last week, during an argument, my spouse revealed something upsetting.

While visiting my parents recently, when I was having a conversation with my mom in another room, my dad bragged to him that they’ve saved a substantial amount since he switched to a better-paying job, and that they’re planning to pay for my younger sibling’s college in full because they want them to graduate debt-free.

My spouse didn’t tell me right away, knowing I’d feel hurt since I took on their loans to ease their financial load.

He wasn’t wrong either, I am hurt because my parents always said they couldn’t afford to help when I was in college, and my older sibling got the same story. Now, my younger sibling seems to be getting preferrential treatment.

She’s not sure what to do.

I’m conflicted about confronting my parents.

I don’t resent my sibling getting assistance that my parents couldn’t afford to give while I was in school, but it stings that they’re focused on saving and setting them up to be debt-free while I’m struggling with enormous payments for loans they took out on top of all of our other burdens.

WIBTA for asking my parents to take back over their portion of the debt?

You’d think the dad would realize how unfair this is instead of bragging about it. No, I don’t think it would be unfair to talk to the parents about this situation and ask them to help with the loans.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person thinks there are two hard lessons to learn from this situation.

It can’t hurt to ask, but it matters how she phrases it.

This person suggests talking to the younger sibling.

A parent shares their perspective.

No child should be asked to pay off their parents’ debt.

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