Her Siblings Paid for Their Own Weddings—Now Wealthy Parents Refuse to Help Lower-Earning Daughter
Pexels/Reddit
Having the money to help doesn’t always mean parents should pay for everything their adult children want.
That’s exactly how one couple feels after already putting all three of their children through college without debt.
Now, their daughter wants them to pay for the wedding she can’t afford on her own.
Her siblings both paid for their own weddings, so the parents don’t think they should make an exception.
However, she believes that decision punishes her for earning less.
Read on for the full scoop.
AITA for not paying for my daughters wedding when I have the funds to do so
My spouse and I have worked hard our whole lives, and we’re now in a very comfortable financial position. We could retire tomorrow if we wanted to, but we both enjoy working and plan to continue.
We have three children, and we paid for all of their college educations so they graduated debt-free. We didn’t put any stipulations on what they could study. Looking back, maybe we should have.
Two of our children have very solid careers, while one does not.
The problem is their youngest child.
This is about my daughter, who I’ll call Maria. Maria earned a degree that doesn’t translate well into a high-paying career. She later went back to get her master’s degree, but that didn’t improve her earning potential either.
She’s struggling financially, and there has been talk of her going back to school again for a nursing degree, although that would be a difficult transition.
My spouse and I believe that if you’re mature enough to get married, you’re mature enough to pay for your own wedding.
Our oldest child got married last year and paid for the wedding themselves. It was a lovely wedding. Our second child is getting married next month, and they are also paying for their own wedding, which will be fairly expensive.
After seeing her siblings’ weddings, she started asking for help with her own.
Maria recently got engaged, but she and her fiancé don’t have the money to have a wedding like her siblings did. She asked if we would pay for it.
I told her no and said they should have the wedding that she and her future husband can afford. She was upset because she knows we have more than enough money to give her a fancy wedding like her siblings had. She thinks it’s unfair that she can’t have her dream wedding simply because she earns less than they do.
I told her that’s just how life works. You pay for what you can afford. We don’t believe it’s our responsibility to pay for an adult child’s wedding.
She thinks I’m being unfair and rubbing our money in her face by refusing to help.
AITA?
Wow! It sounds like they’ve already made up their minds.
Let’s see what the readers over at Reddit think about it.
According to this comment, he may not love his daughter.
This person doesn’t think it would be fair either.
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Everyone is wrong in this reader’s eyes.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a teenager who wants to work, but his mom thinks working past 8pm is too late for high school.
Yet another person who doesn’t think he’s wrong.
That’s actually a pretty tough call.
On one hand, they’re trying to keep things fair among all three of their children.
However, life isn’t always fair, and earning less doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve a nice wedding.
Maybe they could offer the same amount to each child and let Maria decide whether to put hers toward the wedding or not.
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