Imagine living in a blended family with your sister and several step siblings. If you got a really generous monetary gift from a rich relative, would you keep it for yourself or share it with your step siblings?

In this story, one young man is in this exact situation, and he does not want to share. Is he being selfish or making the right decision? Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA for not sharing my birthday money with my step-siblings?

My parents split when I was 9 (Now 18m) and my sister was 7 (Now 16f).

My mom got remarried 4 years ago and my dad has been dating his gf for 3 years.

Right now I live with my mom and step-dad along with his 3 (17f 16m and 14m) kids and my sister.

My step-siblings lost their mom when they were young, so they live full time with my mom and step-dad. I get along with my step-siblings, but we aren’t really close.

They’re not rich, but grandma is!

While my mom and step-dad both have good jobs (They make about ~110.000€ combined) we’ve always been somewhat ‘poor’, since we live in an expensive area and are a family of seven.

But my grandmother from my dad’s side is filthy rich.

This has caused some issues and jealousy in the past since she would buy my sister and me expensive gifts (designer clothes, a new phone/laptop, AirPods etc.) my mom and step-dad couldn’t afford.

He got a really generous birthday present from his grandma.

The issue: Three weeks ago, I celebrated my 18th birthday. It was a small party (thanks to covid) with some family and close friends, but we still had a blast.

My grandma couldn’t make it (thanks again covid) but send me a video message, we watched on our TV. The message consisted of a sweet little speech and her telling me she decided to give me 25.000€ for my birthday.

I was stunned, thought I was hallucinating and didn’t know what to say for nearly two minutes.

Then I immediately called my Grandma to thank her.

He knows exactly what he wants to do with the money.

My grandma wanted to know what I was going to do with the money.

And I told her I was planning on traveling the world (if covid allows it) after HS is done.

When I was done talking to my grandma I could see that my step-siblings were very annoyed, and they left the party a few minutes later.

They have been acting cold towards my sister and me ever since.

His mom and stepdad had a big request.

A few days after my birthday, my mom and step-dad sat me down and asked me to share the money with my step-siblings. They were saying I wouldn’t need 25k to travel the world and that it was unfair towards my step-siblings. They also mentioned all the expensive gifts my sister and I got over the years.

I told them that I would think about it.

Now I know that I’m extremely privileged and that it’s unfair towards my step-siblings but I don’t want to share the money. I want to go all out on this trip and use what’s left to travel during college.

AITA?

He should absolutely keep all of the money and use it for his travel expenses. His grandma gave him the money as a birthday present. He does not have to share.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Exactly!

This person thinks his mom is being rude.

This is a good way of thinking about it.

Here’s a suggestion to get grandma to help.

Gifts are not meant to be shared.

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