When someone tells you they have you taken care of, you tend to listen, especially when it’s someone you used to trust.

So when one mother spent nearly two decades believing her wealthy parents had fully funded her son’s college education, her family built their financial plans around that promise.

But as college approached, the safety net suddenly disappeared from beneath them.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for being angry about a promised college fund gift that wasn’t as expected?

When my son was born almost 19 years ago, my (very wealthy) parents proudly announced that they were starting a college fund for him.

They talked about it constantly to anyone who would listen.

Her parents really made her feel like her child would be set when it came to his education.

At the end of every year, we would get an update on the growing tens of thousands of dollars in the account.

I knew that it would amount to more than enough to cover every conceivable expense in our low cost of living and education state.

But then one day, her dad throws a huge curveball which immediately sends her into a panic.

As my son is entering freaking high school, my dad announces that he’s decided only to cover tuition.

Um… it’s a little late to tell us that because we’re not even remotely wealthy and haven’t saved a dime for college because we didn’t think we needed to, but okay.

(My dad offers no explanation, and they’re still living the high life.)

Then the deal somehow got even worse.

Then it became three years of tuition. I start to panic.

Then my dad decides to do a tuition fund and transfers ownership to me.

My son gets into a top state school, and it turns out my dad had only purchased “credits” for a second tier school.

This puts her and her family in an extremely rough spot.

So now we only have enough money to cover two-ish years of tuition only.

Then today I get some kind of tax form on the fund disbursement, and it looks like we’re going to have to pay taxes on it.

I’m seriously about to lose it.

She wishes she would have done things a lot differently now.

Had the money not been promised, we would have been saving for the past 20 years.

Now we’re up ****’s creek.

AITA for being mad? Or is this a case of you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit?

No one likes a broken promise.

What did Reddit think?

Sure, she wasn’t entitled to the money, but it’s not fair to promise something and then go back on it.

Maybe an honest conversation would be the best course forward.

With important matters like these, it does help to have a back-up plan.

A promise is a promise, especially from family.

The promise sounded like a full ride, but it turned out to be more of a partial ticket.

It’s hard not to feel crushed over a broken promise this big.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.