Which side to choose…?
That is the question in this story from Reddit’s “Am I the A**hole?”
And this one revolves around a biological child and a stepkid, so you know there’s bound to be some drama.
Read on to see what happened and we’d love to hear from you in the comments.
AITA for ‘choosing’ my son over my stepdaughter?
“I (f32) have been married to ‘Mark’ (m36) for 6 years. Mark had a child ‘Sara’ (f12) with ‘Ali’ (ex-girlfriend) who is starting high school next year, meaning she needs a computer for school. We also have a child together ‘Alex’ (m5).
The issue arose last week when my husband asked me to contribute 1/3 of the cost for Saras computer, saying it could be a Christmas present from all of us. Sara wants a MacBook and they decided on the latest MacBook Pro, over $2000 after AppleCare, accessories etc, with my share totalling at least $700.
I make significantly less than my husband and before this year, we would stick to a budget and half the costs together. This year the budget I scheduled was $200 per kid (I typically handle all Christmas shopping but run everything past Mark).
I told Mark that was double what we spend each Christmas and I wasn’t aware until now that I was expected to chip in the costs. I said If I’d had time to save I might’ve but on short notice it wasn’t possible, and suggested we look at cheaper options which was quickly shot down. I told him that I could contribute $200 from my savings but no more as we still had the buy presents for Alex.
This wasn’t received well by Sara, Ali, or Mark and they said I was selfish for not helping out, and Sara was devastated as she took this as me favouring Alex over her and not liking/wanting her.
Their suggestion was that I don’t spend much money on Alex and give the money to Sara instead but I refused, since I didn’t consider that fair to Alex and didn’t want him upset that he didn’t get any/many presents for Christmas.
This has had a severe impact on my relationship with Sara and Ali, and Mark thinks I should do this to ‘prove’ my love for Sara. Sara has 3 people contributing to presents while Alex only has 2 so Sara typically gets more presents anyway, but we always keep things fair anyway.”
Check out what Reddit users had to say.
This person said that these Mark and Ali characters are the a**holes in this story.
Photo Credit: Reddit
And this individual said there’s no way this kid needs a laptop this expensive.
Photo Credit: Reddit
And this Reddit user talked about “child sport” but we all know they’re talking about “child support”…at least I hope they are…
Photo Credit: Reddit
Now we want to hear from you.
Sound off in the comments and tell us what you think about this story.
Thanks a lot!
