After entering a popular game-design contest just for fun, a teen shared his artwork with his family for feedback.

On Three Kings Day, his mom surprised him with custom gifts featuring his design: a water bottle and a hoodie.

While he genuinely appreciated the effort, he admitted he felt awkward using or wearing them outside the house, which led to an emotional reaction he didn’t expect.

Read on for the story.

AITA for not wanting to wear a hoodie with my own game design outside even though my mom spent a lot of money on it?

First of all, I wanted to explain something important about the story: There is a game company called “Supercell” which sometimes runs a contest called “Supercell Make” where you can create cosmetics for some characters. They recently did one for one of their games, and I wanted to try to participate to see if I had any luck.

I showed my designs to my family to ask for feedback, and my mother asked if I could send her the drawings so she could do something she didn’t want to tell me.

Today (at least in Spain) is Three Kings Day, and we went downstairs to open the presents. Really excited, I opened my third present, and I got a bottle with the design of the skin I made.

How sweet.

I thanked her and asked her if I could only use the bottle when I’m inside my house because I would feel embarrassed using a bottle with my own skin design from a kids’ game outside.

She looked a bit disappointed, but I really liked the gift.

Then, after opening some presents, I opened another one of my presents, which looked like clothing.
I looked at my mother, and she looked really excited. I opened the present and… it was a hoodie with my design.

Another one?!

I told her I loved it and I was really thankful for her making this present for me, but I told her the same thing as before.

She then said she had spent too much money for me to just wear it inside the house, and she started crying.

Then I hugged her and tried to talk to her, but then she went upstairs and locked herself inside her room. She didn’t even finish opening her own presents.

Oh no.

I now feel really bad and don’t know what to do.

Am I the a******?

I genuinely loved the presents and was very thankful; I just felt embarrassed wearing them outside.

He reassured his mom that he loved the gifts and was grateful for the thought and money she put into them, but the situation still ended with hurt feelings and unfinished celebrations.

Now he’s left wondering whether setting a boundary about how he uses a gift crossed a line, or if this was simply an unfortunate mismatch of intentions and emotions.

Some people say he’s a little bit of an AH.

But something say NTA.

Overall though, the delivery could’ve been better, and most lean toward YTA.

A heartfelt gift can still be appreciated…even if the comfort level doesn’t match the price tag.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.