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Family emergencies get complicated when the only available savings belong to the youngest adult in the house.

This university student has $2,000 reserved for interest-bearing school debt, not household repairs.

Yet their parents want that fund for a new water heater despite continuing to afford cigarettes, alcohol, and cruises.

Now everyone’s in hot water.

AITA for refusing to give my parents my savings for a new water heater?

I’m 19 and in university. My parents are in their mid to late 50s.

Recently, our water heater sprung a leak and needed to be replaced. It’s about $3-4k where we live.

Here’s the thing.

My parents don’t have the money for it right now, so they came to me asking if I could cover it.

Technically, OP could help out, but the money is for school.

I have about $2k saved from my part-time job, and I also have a scholarship that’s going to hit my bank account in a month or two.

That scholarship money is fully for school because I’m trying to pay off a $5k loan (that’s gaining interest) when the fall semester starts.

They told me it would just be a loan and they’d pay me back when they could, but honestly, I have no idea when that would be, and I’m not exactly rolling in extra cash myself.

What really bugs me is they know I’ve been saving to pay off my debt, and now they’re basically asking me to push that aside for them.

Her mom got pretty upset.

When I hesitated, my mom got all sad and said “I guess we’ll just have to pull out a credit card” and gave me puppy eyes.

I told her to go ahead.

And she flipped out, saying “You live here too, you know.”

She really thinks this is an unfair request.

I understand every household is different and I have the utmost privilege to live in my parents’ home after 18, since a lot of people have to move out.

I also don’t contribute to the mortgage.

But it still feels unfair that they expect me to hand over my savings, especially when they somehow have money for cigarettes, alcohol, OR even cruises, but can’t save for emergencies like this.

While she acknowledged how lucky they are not to have to pay rent, should they be required to help out with home repairs?

I vote for letting the mom put it on a credit card since it sounds like the mom could save money for emergencies but hasn’t.

Also, she is trying to be financially responsible by paying off debt as quickly as possible. It’d be too bad for the parents to sabotage that.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person has a question and a suggestion.

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Here’s a vote for putting the expense on a credit card.

This person encourages her to pay down the loan right away.

These parents are really wasting their money on expensive things.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who deliberately kisses his newborn nephew while sick with a cold, going directly against the parents’ explicit wishes.

A parent weighs in.

This student was reasonable to protect savings earmarked for education, especially when repayment had no timeline and existing debt was accruing interest.

A smaller contribution could be discussed, but draining the entire account while preserving cruises and cigarettes is hardly a fair emergency plan.

They found the emergency fund, but unfortunately it was enrolled in university.

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Author

Chris Allen