Parents demand 18-year-old give her car, that she paid for herself, to her 16-year-old brother because he "needs it more": ' I worked part-time jobs for 2 years to help pay for that car'

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

May 1, 2025 12:00 PM EDT

Yours is yours, and just because you have something doesn't mean your siblings are entitled to it. Especially when you worked hard and saved money to pay for it yourself.

Of course, parents want their children to feel equally loved and valued, and for things and opportunities to be fair amongst siblings. The thing is, what is fair isn't always clear-cut or easy to accomplish. So, they seek to make sure that younger siblings have the things that their older siblings do, choosing to go with equity to avoid any fighting. But not all things are equal, so by providing one sibling with something they might not have earned or be old enough for yet, you end up creating an even more unfair situation.

An example of this was when I was growing up and cell phones were coming into fashion. My parents had my sister wait until 7th grade before she was allowed to have her own phone. But, by the time my parents had caved to my sister—and after making a fuss (as one is wont to do at 12 years old)—I received a phone shortly thereafter, securing one a full year in age before my sister had.

Some years later, I would then go on to total our shared car, which had once solely been hers before I had been old enough to drive.

However, the situation with cellphones in my family is even different from the situation at hand here. Being that this teen saved up and paid for 90% of her own car, she should have complete say in what happens to it.

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"AITA for refusing to give my little brother my car after I turned 18";.

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"My parents say I’m being selfish and that “he needs it more now” since I’m an adult and should start “figuring things out myself.”"

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"Now that I’m 18, I want to keep it while I save up for something better."

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via Sébastien Mouilleau

_{The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.}