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Celebrating one child’s recovery should not require another child to pretend that unequal treatment never hurts.

In this family, an older brother quietly kept the household running while his younger sister battled cancer.

Instead of feeling appreciated afterward, one enormous birthday surprise left him questioning where he fit in the family.

Let’s unpack this one.

AITAH for being upset that my parents gave my sister a brand new car?

I (19 male) have a younger sister Lily (16 female).

This would be devastating for the whole family.

She was diagnosed with cancer last year this freaked out our whole family and it was so hard on us and I love her and tried my best to do something during that hard time.

While our parents were focused on her treatment, I was taking care of cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, helping with our youngest sibling you name it.

And luckily Lily just finished her treatment and is doing great now. We’re all relieved and happy.

What a great reason to celebrate.

Two weeks ago, she celebrated both her birthday and finishing chemo. For this, our parents surprised her with a brand new car.

I was surprised not because she doesn’t deserve to be celebrated, she absolutely does, but because for the past year, my parents have repeatedly told me they couldn’t afford to help me with anything car-related.

I’ve been working and saving for my own used car, and I only ever asked them to help cover the last $700 or so.

Every time I brought it up, my dad shut it down, saying things were hard and a car just wasn’t in the budget.

He really is being treated unfairly.

Two weeks to my birthday. I didn’t expect anything over the top I know we’re not rich but after seeing what they did for Lily, I guess I thought they might surprise me, or at least offer to help me finish the car fund.

Instead, they gave me a manga book I mentioned once and a $50 Amazon gift card.

I thanked them, but I guess my disappointment was obvious because they asked me what was wrong.

How is he being selfish at all?

I was honest and told them I was hurt not about Lily getting a car but I didn’t understand how they were saying they couldn’t help me at all. and to my surprise they told me I was being selfish, jealous, and making things all about me.

My mom said, “She survived cancer and all you can think about is yourself?”

My dad told me I should just keep working and saving I’m an adult now, after all.

He really sums up the situation well here. Hopefully his parents step back and realize this.

I get it. Lily went through hell and deserves to be celebrated.

But I can’t lie I spent around a year taking care of everything without saying anything so they could focus on her, and when it was time for them to show up for me, I got a gift card and a manga book.

So AITA for feeling offended?

Feelings are never right or wrong; they just are. In this case, however, it is easy to see why he feels this way, and his parents should be stepping up to fix what they did.

Let’s see what the people in the comments say about this.

Hopefully the sister remains in remission.

Parenting is difficult, but these parents need to do better.

I’m not sure if this is justified.

This person thinks it will only get worse.

This commenter has a very good opinion of the situation.

OP supported the household during his sister’s treatment, yet his parents dismissed his hurt after buying her a new car while refusing him $700.

Commenters overwhelmingly called him NTA, stressing that celebrating his sister did not excuse overlooking the sacrifices of their dependable “glass child.”

Their budget somehow had room for a dealership bow, but recognizing the son holding everything together exceeded the emotional spending limit.