Imagine working really hard for everything you have and landing a good-paying job because of it. You put yourself through college, got good grades, and you make more than enough money to support yourself.

Would you help out your family financially? Would you help them out even if they got greedy?

In this story, one college grad is in this situation. She was paying her parents’ mortgage and helping them pay a lot of other bills, but she drew the line at one expense she thought was unnecessary.

Now, her family is complaining about her behind her back and calling her selfish. She doesn’t want to help her parents out at all anymore, but she’s wondering if she’s overreacting.

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AIO for cutting my parents off financially after they told my younger siblings I was selfish for not giving them more money while I was paying their mortgage?

I’m 28. First generation college graduate. Took out loans, worked through school, built something from scratch without a safety net.

I’m proud of that.

I’m also aware that my family is proud of it in a way that comes with expectations attached.

She has helped her parents out a lot.

For the last two years I’ve been quietly helping my parents financially.

Not a little. I was covering a significant portion of their mortgage every single month. Groceries when things got tight. Car repairs. A medical bill last spring that would have wiped them out.

I didn’t announce any of it. I didn’t keep score. I did it because they’re my parents and I love them and I didn’t want them to lose their house.

But apparently her parents were complaining about her behind her back.

Two weeks ago my younger sister called me upset. She’d overheard my parents talking about me. Specifically about how I’d said no to lending my dad money for something I genuinely couldn’t justify a new truck he wanted but didn’t need.

According to my sister they called me selfish. Said I’d forgotten my family. Said that people who make good money and don’t take care of their family don’t deserve what they have.

While I was paying their mortgage.

She called her mom.

I didn’t yell. I didn’t send a long emotional text. I just called my mom and told her calmly that I’d heard what was said, that I was deeply hurt, and that I needed to take a step back from the financial support while I figured out how I felt about everything.

She told me I was being dramatic. That family talks and I shouldn’t take it personally.

My dad hasn’t called me at all.

Her family wants her to “be the bigger person.”

I haven’t paid anything since.

And now there’s a family group chat blowing up with aunts and uncles weighing in about how I need to be the bigger person.

I love my family. But I am so tired of being the bigger person being code for absorbing whatever they dish out and writing them a check anyway.

AIO?

Going to college and getting a good job doesn’t mean you’re obligated to buy your dad a new truck!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a young woman who struggles with her new reality after learning her adoption story was a lie.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person thinks it’s time for other family members to help out.

Here’s another vote for letting someone else help them out.

Here’s another suggestion that would get her parents’ attention.

Her dad definitely owes her an apology.

If adult children are doing well financially and want to help out their parents or other family members, that’s wonderful, but they shouldn’t feel obligated to do so and certainly shouldn’t be expected to do so.

Her dad is definitely the selfish one if he is upset that she doesn’t want to buy him a truck. It’s her money, not his, and she has been more than generous to pay their bills and mortgage. They are expecting way too much.

I can totally understand why she cut them off. She doesn’t have to help them out ever again, and she definitely shouldn’t be considering helping them out ever again unless her dad apologizes. Even then, she doesn’t need to help them. Let someone else step up if they’re so bad off financially.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a kind man who helped a friend pack up items to donate, then realized she wanted to take back her “payment.”