When you have multiple children, you raise them all a little differently based on your situation in life, their personalities, and countless other factors.

What would you do if your oldest child didn’t end up learning a skill that you taught your youngest children, and now he is upset?

That is what is happening to the father in this story, and he is trying to find a way to make things right for all of his kids.

Let’s read all the details.

AITA for not teaching a skill to my oldest son that I taught his siblings because of the custody arrangement?

This has quite literally fractured my family.

I have an older son from my first marriage who’s now 24. I have two younger kids from my current marriage who are 21 year old twins.

My divorce occurred right after my son was born.

This type of parenting time schedule can make it hard to bond and stay close.

Over the years, my visitation has been primarily summers and holidays since my ex-wife moved to a different state.

I have a particular skillset I’m was very good at. And all three of my kids have expressed interest in it. Unfortunately, I have only been able to meaningfully teach it to my younger kids.

Spending quality time was more important than teaching this skill, and that seems like the right decision.

This was because to make my visitation with my older son more memorable, I would do camping/vacations etc. I didn’t have time to teach him properly.

Also, anything I did try to teach him was forgotten and not practiced because he lived in an apartment with his mother.

Wow, this is really great for those kids!

The major issue now is that my younger kids have started a company after high school using this skill. I provided the initial funds and as such have a 33% stake in it.

This company has really soared this past year and it’s making a lot of money.

I can see where this would be a problem.

My older son graduated from college and is doing a job he hates and is not exactly making a lot of money. Especially compared to his siblings.

Part of this is my fault because he did ask to take a few years off after high school and maybe have me teach him what I knew, but my wife was battling cancer at the time and I told him I couldn’t. And now, I’m not well enough to teach anymore.

Do they need someone to do the finances? And is that worth a full share in the company?

He is now telling me to include him in this company as a equal partner. That he’ll do the finances.

This was not received well by his siblings who say they do basically 95% of the work. And that he didn’t struggle in the earlier years to get it running.

Sadly, there is not a solution that will make everyone happy.

I’m really at a loss here.

I thought of just giving my share of the company to my oldest son, but it does seem unfair to his siblings who started this company in the first place.

My oldest has become very bitter about this and has involved my parents. They are taking his side and now my younger kids are resentful that their grandparents have been turned against them.

It is heartbreaking when conflict splits a family like this.

Our Sunday family lunches are no longer happening and I’m having to see my oldest for dinner on other days. And every time I see him I’m getting accused of not treating him fairly.

It kills me because I made so many compromises to have him in my life in a meaningful way.

He accused me on Saturday of pushing him out my new family and loving his siblings more.

I haven’t been able to sleep since. Should I have done all this differently?

This is a horrible situation without a good solution. No matter what dad does, he is going to have some kids upset with him. I think he should try to include his eldest son as much as possible, but in a way that is fair to everyone.

Read through some of the top comments below to see what other people on Reddit think about this situation.

Yeah, hopefully they can help him in a fair way.

It is easy to judge this type of thing from the outside.

Here is someone who thinks he wasn’t equitable to his kids.

Why should the older son get something handed to him.

This commenter thinks the older son has a right to be upset.

I don’t know that he can make this right for everyone.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.