Parents like to believe they treat their kids equally, but sometimes the evidence says otherwise.

So when this dad splurged on an expensive gift for his son while dismissing his daughter’s wishlist, the cracks in their family dynamic began to appear.

The ensuing backlash left him facing the reality of his favoritism that he didn’t want to acknowledge.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one.

AITA for refusing to buy “equal” gifts for my children?

My daughter (14) wrote a giant list for her birthday, but at the top was something called a Dyson Airwrap.

She’s quite into TikTokers and YouTube and had a bunch of things related to that listed.

This father wasn’t too keen on this gift, so he decided to get her something more disappointing instead.

I was tempted to get what she asked for, but when I saw the price tag I backed off.

I feel like that sort of price for what boils down to a hair dryer isn’t a suitable thing for a girl her age.

Instead, I purchased some of the more minor things on her list, got her what looked to be a nice hair dryer so she wouldn’t have to use the family one, and some hair rollers.

When his daughter was rightfully bummed, he dismissed her behavior as simply ungrateful.

When she opened her gift, she was immediately sullen and went silent.

She didn’t bother to thank me or her mother, then eventually went off to her room and didn’t come out for a while.

Later that week, an argument broke out over her behavior, and she went off at everyone over what she considered a grand injustice.

But then he reveals how differently he treated his son and his hobbies.

Last year, as a reward for doing well on his exams, I purchased my son Aaron (16) a LEGO set he had been coveting for quite a while.

He has had a lifelong obsession with LEGO and had been struggling with depression and anxiety a lot over the entire year.

Aaron not only completing his exams, but doing so well, inspired me to get him something I knew he had been eyeing all year long.

This time, he didn’t seem to bat an eye over the cost, which only made his daughter even more upset.

The set was expensive (I’ll admit it cost more than the hair dryer my daughter desired), but it really perked him up, and I felt like he needed it.

My daughter feels that it’s a crime that I got Aaron something like that “unprompted,” while not going above and beyond for her own birthday.

This father doesn’t approve of her behavior at all.

I think that she is being incredibly immature and the situations just aren’t the same, but she still is going around acting like a kicked dog and drumming up sympathy with extended family who she felt the need to text about her plight.

AITA for this?

A little self-awareness could have saved this dad a lot of grief.

What did Reddit make of this story?

There’s a small detail here that really lays bare the blatant favoritism.

Kids pick up on a lot more than adults give them credit for.

It’s very clear to this commenter that what this father did was unjust.

It’s hard to ignore the blatant differences between the way this father talks about his daughter versus his son.

He kept insisting he was being practical, but all his daughter saw was a dad who didn’t value her interests.

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.