Parents and older siblings often walk a fine line between encouragement and enabling.

It’s hard to celebrate someone’s achievements when their attitude doesn’t quite match their effort.

In this story, an older sister wrestles with whether her spoiled younger sibling really deserves the fancy gift she’s demanding.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for refusing to buy my little sister a stationary set.

I’ve been there for my sister practically since her birth.

She was born when I was already an adult, and with my parents working full-time, it feels like I’ve been one of her primary caretakers all her life.

She’s the youngest of five siblings, and three of us were adults by the time she was a toddler, so she grew up pretty spoiled.

Unfortunately, her behavior only worsened with age.

She’s now a preteen, and she’s been getting a little… too much.

She doesn’t respect my boundaries, doesn’t listen when I give her advice, and ignores chores—like when she’s asked to do the dishes, and I remind her she’s supposed to, she’ll say she’ll do it later and then never does because she doesn’t feel like it.

Or when she talks to random people on the internet who are all years older than her, I tell her it’s not safe, but she does it anyway.

She also loves to play pranks, no matter how often I tell her I don’t like it.

So when her younger sibling did a decent job academically, she demanded an expensive gift in return.

She recently went through some major exams and passed most of her classes.

She got 100% in some tests (like English), and her lowest-performing class was in the 70s, which is low but still a pass.

She’s expecting a gift and wants this expensive stationery set used by her favorite YouTuber—a teen school vlogger who’s also an artist (my sister is really into art).

The older sibling is now concerned that buying her this gift would send the wrong message.

The only problem is, despite her results, I’m not happy with how she’s been acting.

I’m trying to be understanding because I remember being that age, but I just can’t buy her such an expensive gift—it feels like I’d be rewarding bad behavior.

So AITA for refusing to buy her the gift she wanted and opting for something cheaper?

Not every “win” comes with luxury stationery attached.

What did Reddit think?

The spoiling needs to stop — and soon.

If she’s going to be given a gift, then she should have to earn it.

In this commenter’s eyes this girl definitely doesn’t deserve a gift.

Bad behavior shouldn’t be rewarded.

Maybe the real gift here is encouraging her younger sister to do better for herself.

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