Family money arguments can always get messy fast, especially when one sibling’s “want” starts looking a lot more expensive than another sibling’s actual need.

A college student had been struggling through online classes with an ancient, barely functioning laptop and asked his dad if he could help him buy a used replacement for around $400.

His dad told him he simply didn’t have the money for it.

So you can probably imagine how frustrating it was to later find out that his younger sister was about to get a brand new $1200 iPhone just because her friends already had one.

Instead of exploding immediately, though, he decided to strategize and have a conversation with his old man.

Surprisingly, his plan worked.

Unfortunately, keeping that arrangement secret didn’t last very long.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for telling my dad to buy me a laptop instead of buying my sibling a new phone because I really needed it for school?

So I am currently doing college online and so I really needed a laptop because the one I had at the time was very old and slow.

My current wage job wasn’t going to get me anything relatively good so I had asked my dad if he could buy me an old laptop from ebay for $400.

He told me he didn’t have the money.

Fast forward a month later my little sister calls me and tells me that our dad is buying her the new iPhone 17 Pro Max for $1200.

That hurt to hear, but he decided to investigate.

I pretended like I was so happy for her and then asked her what she plans to do with this considering she already has a good enough working iPhone 13.

She basically just said she just wants the new one because all her friends have it and I was like “okay that’s cool”.

I was secretly livid.

He took action fast.

I live near my dad (not that close but not far) so I went over there and I made small talk then asked him about it and basically told him that I was really needing a laptop for school and I heard that he was paying like a thousand dollars for my sister’s phone.

I basically just told him that it makes more sense to buy me a laptop now and wait for my sister to get good grades at the end of the semester before buying her anything.

I was aware she wasn’t doing that well in school.

Plot twist incoming.

He (to my surprise) agreed and bought me the laptop actually for a bit higher price of $650 and I of course didn’t wanna hurt my sister so I didn’t tell her about this.

I then did call my sister later on, and I asked her about it and she as expected, told me that he wasn’t going to buy her anything unless she gets good grades and I told her I hope she does get the phone soon and keeps studying.

I’m not sure if my dad told her but she didn’t tell me, or if he did end up buying it for her but I did get my laptop.

Here is the thing, I have empathy for my sister but at the end of the day it’s between a want (her new phone) and a need (my new laptop).

He feels a bit bad about it.

I’m going into college now and in high school I used an old 2008 blackberry and I was picked on, but I was fine.

My older brother did end up telling her after finding out from my dad (I genuinely have no idea how he found out. But I knew my dad wouldn’t keep it a secret for long).

And my sister didn’t talk to me for a while and that was expected but recently she has started talking to me again and I did apologize.

As her brother it’s important for me to empathize with her and understand her point of view and her perspective.

AITA?

It’s nice that he cares about not hurting her feelings. But I think he did the right thing.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about siblings who treat every social outing like a weird competition.

What did Reddit think?

A reader shares their opinion.

Someone thinks he’s in the wrong.

I agree.

Yup.

The people are divided.

Yikes.

Honestly, this situation feels less like sibling rivalry and more like someone pointing out the obvious difference between a luxury purchase and an educational necessity.

The sister already had a working phone, while he was actively struggling to do online college work on a laptop that sounded like it belonged in a museum exhibit somewhere.

At the same time, it makes sense that the sister felt betrayed after finding out her brother’s conversation with their dad directly affected whether she got the phone or not.

Still, it’s hard to ignore the fact that he didn’t demand the newest gaming laptop or something ridiculous. He originally asked for a used computer that would simply let him keep up with school properly.

In the end, this mostly feels like a parent finally realizing that school equipment probably deserved priority over a trendy phone upgrade.

I’m surprised so many people think he’s TA for what he did.