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Jealousy can get ugly fast when someone decides they deserve what another person has.
One dad is dealing with that after his teenage daughter became resentful of the expensive gifts her stepsister started receiving.
Things came to a head when the stepsister’s grandparents bought her a $6,000 purse and refused to let the daughter borrow it.
Instead of letting it go, the girl damaged the purse badly enough that it had to be replaced.
Now, her dad is making her repay the full cost, even though her mother thinks the punishment goes too far.
Read on to see exactly what he has to say about this whole thing.
AITA for making my daughter pay back 6000 dollars for destroying her step sister purse
When my daughter was around 10, I remarried her stepmom, who had her own daughter who was 9.
They got along for the most part until recently.
In short, my daughter is jealous. I’ll call my daughter Ash. My stepdaughter (Emma, fake name) has recently reconnected with her grandparents on her father’s side. The grandparents have money to burn and are retired.
At one point, it was Ash who was spoiled.
I want to point out that before they came into the picture, my daughter was the one to receive nicer gifts from her mom’s side of the family. Example: there have been a few times Ash went on vacations that my stepdaughter wasn’t allowed to go on or got more expensive stuff. I can’t stop my ex-wife from spoiling her or her family.
So the issue has been Ash has been jealous of Emma recently because Emma’s grandparents are giving her stuff. That stuff will sometimes be in our home. I’m not going to ban her from bringing her gift to her place she lives at 50% of the time.
One example is Emma got the newest phone, and my daughter wanted her iPhone upgraded. I told her we don’t have the money at the moment, and she said it was unfair her stepsister got the newest phone. She wasn’t very happy. We had a conversation and brought up the stuff she has gotten but Emma hasn’t over the years.
Then, Ash showed what she was really capable of.
Ash is 16, and Emma is 15. Emma’s grandparents got her a 6,000-dollar purse for back to school. I don’t get it, but Emma seemed to really like it, and she is using it. It’s her first real purse.
My daughter was jealous when she saw it because she knew the brand. Ash asked if she could borrow it, and Emma told her no. They got into an argument, and I stopped it and reiterated that it was Emma’s.
Well, Ash decided to destroy the purse. She cut some of the leather and popped some of the seams.
Understandably, members of the family were upset.
My wife’s ex-husband was ******, and my wife replaced the purse with her own money (we really didn’t have that to blow).
I discussed it with my wife, and we are making Ash pay back the purse. We already took 4,000 that she earned this summer from her job and made it clear that for her next paychecks, she is to give us 50% until it is paid.
Ash has been upset some, and she ran to her mom, who has had a lot of things to say about this. She claims we are being too harsh.
Wow! She really went there.
Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit would’ve handled it.
According to this comment, those were life lessons he taught his child.
For some people, it’s just money.
This reader would’ve done the same.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a friend group that’s split when one roommate backs out of their dream apartment.
Here’s a reader who thinks the punishment was appropriate.
The daughter needs to pay the money back.
She didn’t accidentally damage the purse. She ruined it because she was jealous and angry that her stepsister wouldn’t let her borrow it.
And while $6,000 is a huge amount of money, that’s still what someone else had to spend to replace what she destroyed.
Ultimately, having to work it off may be the only way she really understands how serious that choice was.
