Redditor Cuts Ties With Parents After Finding Out They're Paying For His Sister's Tuition After They Refused To Pay For His

A Reddit user says his relationship with his parents changed the moment he realized they were willing to pay for his sister’s Ivy League tuition, but not his. The 23-year-old, who already built a career at one of the big tech companies, says his family spent years pushing him to aim high, only to pull back when the bill came due. He finished school at a state university with student loans, while his sister later got the kind of support he never did.

Now he is cutting ties and wondering whether the hurt goes deeper than the money. Read on.

His sister recently called to tell him she got accepted into an Ivy League school.

OP congratulated her but asked if their parents would also force her to decline the offer due to the cost. To OP's surprise, his sister said that their dad told her not to worry about her tuition.

OP was shocked and hung up the phone. He then realized that his parents were not as broke as they had told him.

His dad has also worked at those top tech companies. OP believes that he has high-value stocks that amount to a few hundred thousand, if not millions, of dollars.

He confronted his parents the next time they called him, and they visibly tensed up. They told OP that their financial decisions were none of his business.

OP declared that it was the last time he would ever speak to them. He has since ignored all of their attempts to contact him.

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OP's full Reddit post is below:

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"As much as it pained me."

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That's where the story takes a sharp turn.

This is where things take a turn.

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Can you blame him, really?

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OP entertained questions from other Redditors, and that's where we found out he maxed out his student loan to pay for college.

MissPricklyUnicorn, parents_lied__

Maybe it was the parents' twisted way of teaching OP a lesson.

MissPricklyUnicorn, parents_lied__

Could it be that the sister is the favorite child?

duraraross

This commenter has been there before.

And if you are wondering whether the sister in this story should ever pay back the parents, this AITA debate has a sister facing blame after a failed business left the family broke.

If that was the case, OP wished his parents were just blatant about it.

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One person pointed out that the parents did, in fact, help OP reach his current stellar career.

A sympathetic commenter offered their perspective based on a similar experience.

Yukon-Don Yukon-Don

One person pointed out that the parents did, in fact, help OP reach his current stellar career.

Fox-Smol Fox-Smol

Looking at the big picture, they did not help OP at all.

_corbae_

Compared to other college students, OP's parents did an okay job, according to this Reddit user.

thatcatlibrarian

The crux of the problem is not really the money, as this one Redditor pointed out.

retired-penguin

That trust is difficult to rebuild, given that OP is very much hurt by his parents' actions.

billyyankNova

They did push him to strive for those top colleges only to sing an entirely different tune when OP's hard work paid off.

flubbymagic

Two things can be true: OP is indeed in a better financial position than most people his age, but it's also true that his parents did a horrible thing.

loginorregister9 loginorregister9

Their actions basically signal that they favor one child over the other.

KeyFly3 KeyFly3

By forcing OP to turn down his offer, his parents essentially cut OP's dream short.

caz__z caz__z

The parents could have handled the situation better. Instead of letting OP believe that they didn't have money for his tuition, they could have just explained things to him.

Obviously, OP is a smart guy; he probably would have understood his parents had they just been upfront. They are now in a difficult position brought about by their own manipulation and deception.

Now the family has to live with the fallout.

Then see how one parent loan repayment demand turned into a full-blown family blowup, where a Redditor asked for the money back and everyone exploded.