She’s Refusing To Help Pay For Her Brother’s Girlfriend To Travel With Them On A Family Vacation, But Her Brother Keeps Saying She Earns Enough Money And Shouldn’t Mind
This 24-year-old woman goes on regular family vacations, which include her older brother, 26, and younger sister, 13. A few years ago, she and her brother got stable jobs, so they started footing the bill for all travel expenses (aside from airfare) for their parents and sister.
She pays half of their parents’ and sister’s expenses for each vacation, while her brother pays the other half. Coincidentally, she and her brother work in the same field and have similar jobs but work for different companies. Because of this, they make roughly the same salaries.
This “tradition” of her and her brother paying the rest of their family’s expenses on vacations started because they wanted to show appreciation for everything their parents did for them throughout their childhood.
They both understood how expensive it was to raise children, so they wanted to show their gratitude. Their parents never requested this; she and her brother chose to do this. Plus, since their sister is a minor and can’t work, they thought it would be nice to pay her expenses during trips, too.
When they started doing this, they both acknowledged that if either of them began to struggle financially and could no longer afford to pay their family’s trip expenses, they would change how they split the costs.
Her brother’s girlfriend came with them on their most recent trip. So, she discussed the upcoming trip with her brother and said they could split the cost of paying their family’s expenses like always, but added that he should be responsible for paying for his girlfriend.
Unfortunately, her brother was furious with this plan. He claimed it was hurtful because there was the possibility that he might marry his girlfriend someday, so she might be a future family member.
“He said that he wouldn’t mind spending a couple hundred dollars on my boyfriend if he had come. He says that I earn enough, so I should not mind,” she said.
Even though she was grateful that her brother clarified that if the tables were turned, he would have no problem paying for her boyfriend’s travel expenses, she would have never expected him to do so if that were the scenario.
Dmitry Tsvetkov – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
In addition, she felt like her salary was irrelevant to the issue. She didn’t understand why her brother was so mad with what she said and thought he was blowing it out of proportion.
“I thought by principle that it made sense, but it seems I may have been wrong. I don’t think he was trying to freeload off of my money, but rather he thinks my mentality is wrong,” she explained.
During the conversation, she got the impression that her brother was upset because his girlfriend could become part of the family one day, so he thought she should be treating his girlfriend the same way they treated the rest of their family.
“His girlfriend is not paying, as she is a guest on the holiday, so I assume she was told she would not have to pay,” she shared.
She doesn’t think it matters whether or not her brother’s girlfriend has a job, but his girlfriend does work. Now, she doesn’t know what to think about the situation and isn’t sure if her view is wrong.
What advice would you give her?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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