Family

<p>This isn&#39;t a stepdad, it&#39;s the dad that stepped up &mdash; and back down, on all his stepson&#39;s hopes and dreams. Sitting around the Christmas tree, one stepdad opened a mean-spirited gift and reacted with zero hesitation. Now, he&#39;s wondering if he did the right thing. On Reddit, he <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/zzxst2/aita_for_officially_canceling_my_stepsons_college/" target="_blank">asks</a>:</p><h2>AITA for officially canceling my stepson&#39;s college fund over his Christmas gift that he got me?</h2><blockquote> <p>To preface, I wanna start off by mentioning that me and my 16 yo stepson (Ricky) do not get along. He&#39;s made it clear he has one father and isn&#39;t interested in having a relationship with me be it bad or good he just doesn&#39;t care at all.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>He&#39;s one of the weirdest kids I&#39;d ever met.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>After selling the land I inherited from my dad, my wife managed to convince me to start a college fund for Ricky. I wasn&#39;t sure of it til I noticed how he&#39;d sometimes &quot;tolerate me&quot; just because of it.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>So I went ahead and opened that fund and started adding money to it here and there. We still get into a lot of arguments but at least he&#39;d say sorry sometimes.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>At Christmas I was excited when I found out that he cared enough to get me a gift. All went well til I opened it. Turns out he took a picture of his middle finger, printed it out and folded it and put it in a box and decorated the box with decorative paper.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>I was floored. Especially when he began laughing along with some of my in-laws. I was pissed I asked if he would still find it funny if I decide to cancel his college fund because of what he did.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>His response was this &quot;what did you think? respect is earned not bought, a**hole!&quot; I replied with &quot;okay, then spending money on you is obviously useless so I won&#39;t even bother...&quot;</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>Then I announced in front of everyone that I had officially canceled his college fund. His mom freaked out and he got up and stormed off. A huge argument ensued and I was told I was wrong for reacting this way and for making a hasty decision over what my wife called &quot;fun prank&quot;. Given Ricky&#39;s response, this was not a prank.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>After, Christmas was ruined. My wife started arguing saying I&#39;m taking the extreme route and warned me about further and permanent damage in my relationship with Ricky. She says he still wants the fund although he&#39;s acting like he doesn&#39;t care and is pressuring me to reconsider but I said I won&#39;t.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>AITA? Did I go too far?</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>Edit. I should probably also mention that everyone around Ricky complains about him acting out as well but when it comes to me, there&#39;s this unexplainable tension between us. He can be nice to me sometimes but still manages to call me a name or make a backhanded comment. They say it&#39;s his personality and who he is.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>Here&#39;s how the crowd judged a situation that would make the Grinch swell with pride:</p><p><a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/_makoccino_/" target="_blank">_makoccino_</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>&quot;respect is earned&quot;</p> <p>So is college tuition, sh*tface. NTA.</p> </blockquote><p><a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/epostiler/" target="_blank">epostiler</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>He literally gift wrapped a public &#39;f*ck you&#39; to humiliate you at Christmas. I don&#39;t see how you can make the relationship worse. NTA.</p> </blockquote><p><a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/noworriesbee/" target="_blank">noworriesbee</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>I&#39;m not sure why she and bio dad couldn&#39;t create the college fund on their own. If he wants to have no relationship whatsoever with you, and can&#39;t even show a modicum of consideration or respect it is not your responsibility to help pay for his college. He&#39;s right, respect can&#39;t be bought. But rewarding bad behavior is never good either. NTA</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p><a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Fit-Panda4903/" target="_blank">Fit-Panda4903</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>NTA.</p> <p>Sorry but your stepson and in-laws sound rather despicable.</p> <p>Not sure about your wife, it sounds like she is merely trying to ensure her son&#39;s future but her parenting does not seem to work so her son&#39;s future looks bleak with or without money.</p> </blockquote><p><a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ShesSensitive/" target="_blank">ShesSensitive</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>Why are you the one starting a college fund? His mother can&#39;t do it? So she let her son treat you like that and assume you&#39;ll have the kindness of giving YOUR money for her son? Why is she not asking the son&#39;s father for that?</p> </blockquote><p>And a happy New Year!</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div>

Teen gives stepdad a prank Christmas gift. Stepdad: 'Pay your own tuition.'

This isn&#39;t a stepdad, it&#39;s the dad that stepped up &mdash; and back down, on all his stepson&#39;s hopes and dreams. Sitting around the Christmas tree, one stepdad opened a mean-spirited gift and reacted with zero hesitation. Now, he&#39;s wondering if he did the right thing. On Reddit, he asks:AITA for officially canceling my stepson&#39;s college fund over his Christmas gift that he got me? To preface, I wanna start off by mentioning that me and my 16 yo stepson (Ricky) do not get along. He&#39;s made it clear he has one father and isn&#39;t interested in having a relationship with me be it bad or good he just doesn&#39;t care at all.  He&#39;s one of the weirdest kids I&#39;d ever met.  After selling the land I inherited from my dad, my wife managed to convince me to start a college fund for Ricky. I wasn&#39;t sure of it til I noticed how he&#39;d sometimes &quot;tolerate me&quot; just because of it.  So I went ahead and opened that fund and started adding money to it here and there. We still get into a lot of arguments but at least he&#39;d say sorry sometimes.  At Christmas I was excited when I found out that he cared enough to get me a gift. All went well til I opened it. Turns out he took a picture of his middle finger, printed it out and folded it and put it in a box and decorated the box with decorative paper.  I was floored. Especially when he began laughing along with some of my in-laws. I was pissed I asked if he would still find it funny if I decide to cancel his college fund because of what he did.  His response was this &quot;what did you think? respect is earned not bought, a**hole!&quot; I replied with &quot;okay, then spending money on you is obviously useless so I won&#39;t even bother...&quot;  Then I announced in front of everyone that I had officially canceled his college fund. His mom freaked out and he got up and stormed off. A huge argument ensued and I was told I was wrong for reacting this way and for making a hasty decision over what my wife called &quot;fun prank&quot;. Given Ricky&#39;s response, this was not a prank.  After, Christmas was ruined. My wife started arguing saying I&#39;m taking the extreme route and warned me about further and permanent damage in my relationship with Ricky. She says he still wants the fund although he&#39;s acting like he doesn&#39;t care and is pressuring me to reconsider but I said I won&#39;t.  AITA? Did I go too far?  Edit. I should probably also mention that everyone around Ricky complains about him acting out as well but when it comes to me, there&#39;s this unexplainable tension between us. He can be nice to me sometimes but still manages to call me a name or make a backhanded comment. They say it&#39;s his personality and who he is. Here&#39;s how the crowd judged a situation that would make the Grinch swell with pride:_makoccino_ writes: &quot;respect is earned&quot; So is college tuition, sh*tface. NTA. epostiler writes: He literally gift wrapped a public &#39;f*ck you&#39; to humiliate you at Christmas. I don&#39;t see how you can make the relationship worse. NTA. noworriesbee writes: I&#39;m not sure why she and bio dad couldn&#39;t create the college fund on their own. If he wants to have no relationship whatsoever with you, and can&#39;t even show a modicum of consideration or respect it is not your responsibility to help pay for his college. He&#39;s right, respect can&#39;t be bought. But rewarding bad behavior is never good either. NTA Fit-Panda4903 writes: NTA. Sorry but your stepson and in-laws sound rather despicable. Not sure about your wife, it sounds like she is merely trying to ensure her son&#39;s future but her parenting does not seem to work so her son&#39;s future looks bleak with or without money. ShesSensitive writes: Why are you the one starting a college fund? His mother can&#39;t do it? So she let her son treat you like that and assume you&#39;ll have the kindness of giving YOUR money for her son? Why is she not asking the son&#39;s father for that? And a happy New Year!

This isn&#39;t a stepdad, it&#39;s the dad that stepped up &mdash; and back down, on all his stepson&#39;s hopes and dreams. Sitting around the Christmas tree, one stepdad opened a mean-spirited gift and reacted with zero hesitation. Now,...