Do you collect anything? If you do, you might have certain memories attached to certain items in the collection which can make it feel impossible to part with any of it.

What would you do if your mom wanted you to give your collection to your cousins?

In this story, one teenage girl is in this exact situation. She collects stuffed animals, and she does not want to give any of them away.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITA for not letting my mom give my stuffed animals to my cousins?

I (16F) have two younger cousins, S (14m) and J (12f). I consider them like my siblings.

I was always made to give away my personal things to them even when they already had their own versions of said items/didnt care much.

This sounds like a cute collection.

For some backstory, since I was little, i liked to collect stuffed animals. For my sweet 16, my friends got me stuffed animals because they all know I like them, so i got probably 10 new ones.

My mom decided that she was going to send my cousins my things this year for christmas.

She asked me about it, and I said that it was fine as long as it wasnt my stuffed animals.

I have a bunch of old toys I don’t really care about anymore so I was fine sending those, but I do really like my stuffed animals and didnt want to send them because they have more sentimental value to me.

What is her mom’s problem?

My mom comes into my room and starts grabbing stuffed animals off my shelf and screaming at me like “why can’t i take this one? you probably dont even remember where you got it from!”

And then she would get mad at me when I remembered exactly where I got it from/who gave it to me because I have sentimental attachment to these things.

She was literally picking up ones that mattered to me too, like this one stuffed panda my brother got me on his first visit back home, or this dog one of my best friends gave me before she moved across the country.

She was willing to give a lot of other things away.

I gave my mom other things that I was fine with her giving away, like some old (untouched) art supplies. I also found some clothes that J would really like too.

I was suggesting giving them some of my old things that they would actually like and use (S plays guitar and I have and extra amp and some other music related things he would really like that i offered to send instead).

She kept saying I was being selfish and she was disgusted to have raised such person.

But I doubt that me not wanting to give them my stuffed animals is representative of how selfish i am.

She doesn’t think she’s being immature.

She said I was being immature in even caring about this stuff, but i really dont think its immature to have sentimental ties to things is it?

i feel bad because maybe I do just need to grow up, but i really do think shes being a bit irrational and unfair. AITA?

It sounds like her mom doesn’t like her stuffed animal collection and is trying to come up with a reason to get her to get rid of it. Otherwise, she’d happily take the other items her daughter was willing to give away.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Here’s a warning.

Another woman reassures her that she doesn’t have to outgrow her collection.

You don’t give away sentimental items.

I completely agree.

She needs to lock up her collection.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.