School trips for kids are a lot of fun and great opportunities, but they can also be very expensive.

What would you do if your daughter wanted to go on a trip, but you told her that she had to raise half the money for herself, and she did it by begging other people for money?

That is what happened to the mom in this story, so she told her daughter that she had to give the money back and find another way to pay for the school trip.

AITAH for telling my daughter she can’t go on a school trip even though she raised the money for it like I told her to?

So I (34F) and my husband (35M) have a daughter Iris (13F).

Living on a budget is difficult.

We are honestly not well-off at all and get by with lots of sacrificing and budgeting.

Still, we do our best to make sure Iris has all the extras she needs – we buy her art supplies, we pay for her to go out with her friends, etc etc. All within reason. I am willing to give more details on this if needed.

School trips can be a lot of fun.

Iris’s school does school trips every once in a while. She has one coming up, an overnight trip to our nearby city where they can see the sights and visit historical monuments. (Not being specific on purpose).

However, it does cost quite a pretty penny. When Iris told me about this and asked for the money, I told her we were very sorry but we didn’t have the money for it.

I can certainly see why she would be upset.

She seemed quite upset, so I told her maybe the three of us could put our heads together and think of a way to raise the money before the deadline for the trip.

I was thinking maybe a bake sale or something, perhaps she could sell some of her art or do commissions. She huffed at me and told me she’d get the money herself and just walked away.

She should have kept up to date on what her daughter was doing.

Here is where I may have made a mistake: I didn’t follow up with her at all.

Honestly it slipped my mind, and I work long days so it wasn’t really a priority especially since she didn’t bring it up again.

It is natural to assume this.

I guess I just assumed that she’d given up and decided not to go.

I did still set aside a small portion from my paychecks just in case she was working on something, even though I didn’t really expect anything.

Well, that is great.

But two days ago she came up to me and told me she had the money.

I was shocked and confused and firstly assumed she must have sold some of her things and I was ready to scold her about not talking to me first.

Oh, this is not appropriate.

But the reality was worse. I asked her how she got so much money and it turns out she literally went and begged to everyone she could.

Her friends’ parents, her art teacher, literal people on the street. She apparently told them we were extremely poor and couldn’t pay for her trip, which is not true – we are not in poverty, we keep her as comfortable as we can.

Kids sometimes have an odd view of money.

She has never had to worry about meals or the heat turning off. She just guilted them all into giving her money.

I was appalled and extremely embarrassed, and told her that that was completely unacceptable and she had to give all the money back and that she was not going to use that money to go on the trip.

As long as she learns that this was not ok.

I wanted to say she couldn’t go at all now even if she got the money in an acceptable way, but my husband said that was a little strong.

He fully agrees with me on not using the money she pretty much stole, though, and when she went crying to him about it he sided with me fully.

Maybe she can find another way to raise money.

She started crying and shouted at me that the deadline was a week away and that she couldn’t get the money again in just a week.

I told her that was really sad and maybe if she’d made a plan with me weeks ago, then she would have been able to get the money.

It looks like she won’t be going on this trip.

But for now she has a week to come up with it. She stormed upstairs to her room and has been sulking since then.

So, was I wrong for telling my daughter she couldn’t use the money to fund her trip even though she came up with it herself?

AITA?

No, she needs to learn that begging and being dishonest are not okay ways to get money in life.

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

This commenter makes a good point.

This commenter is pretty harsh.

Why would this commenter assume this is a chronic problem?

How did she fail as a parent?

Wow, this commenter thinks it is pretty serious.

Begging for money is not an option.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.