Dad of 4 children keeps paying Mom child support even after 3 kids turn 18, Mom decides to stay silent and take the money, until he finally discovers: ‘You did nothing'

Bar Mor Hazut • Lead Editor

Jun 1, 2026 8:30 AM EDT

Who's at fault here, Dad, who didn't notice, or Mom, who didn't say anything?

Have you ever stood in front of a cashier after you just gave them money for a purchase, and after they gave you back your change, you realized they gave you more than they should have? Like, they gave you a $20 bill instead of $5 and basically lost money without noticing?

Mistakes like these happen, especially for people who look at numbers and money all day long. The question is, what do you do after you notice this mistake? We imagine some people act like they didn't notice either and happily take the money, but we could never do that. If we catch the mistake, we will do the right thing and give the money back. Otherwise, it's basically stealing.

Is what the Mom in the story below did basically stealing? We'll let you decide.

She turned to a Reddit community to ask if she's in the wrong about how she handled her ex-husband's child support pay. They agreed that he would pay child support for each of their four children until they turn 18 years old. The agreement stated that they would take turns to file the documents after each child turns 18, and Mom did so for their first child.

When the second child turned 18, Mom noticed that Dad forgot to file the court papers and instead continued to pay the child support. Instead of saying something to him, Mom decided to keep quiet and keep the money, and the same thing happened with child #3. It was only after the fourth child turned 18 and child support ended altogether that Dad's girlfriend finally noticed the years he overpaid for the kids who had already turned 18. Immediately, she accused Mom of not saying anything and basically stealing the money all these years.

Which leads to the question, should Mom have said something, or was it Dad's fault for not noticing when his own children turned 18?