Should a parent ever sell a child’s possessions to purchase something for their other child?
Raising children is incredibly costly. Data shows that the cost of raising a kid to adulthood in the US is on average $10,000 to $15,000 per year.
With that said, these costs can grow astronomically if one's child suffers from a disability or requires additional assistance to get by in day-to-day life. Such accommodations are never cheap, and cost parents a pretty penny.
These exact realities were highlighted in a recent online post in which a mother with two children sells her daughter's possessions so that she can buy new shoes for her son who lives with cerebral palsy.
Should a parent ever sell a child’s possessions to purchase something for their other child?
A Reddit post published on May 21st, reported on by Samantha Berlin from Newsweek, has gone viral with 16,500 upvotes and 1,900 comments.
The author begins her post by explaining that she's 17-years-old and has an 8-year-old brother with cerebral palsy. Her mother is a single mom, so they've been on a pretty tight budget her entire life.
With that said, the teen is a huge fan of the band My Chemical Romance, and has been for 10 years. She was lucky enough to score some coveted tickets to a show they were going to have in her city, and she was planning to bring her boyfriend. She points out that her mother also recently bought tickets to see Ed Sheeran in concert, even though she's been struggling financially.
However, the author's mother texted her recently to say that she was tight on cash and needed to buy her 8-year-old son a new pair of shoes, so she'd have to ‘sell the concert tickets’ to buy the shoes instead. The author assumed that her mother would sell her own Ed Sheeran tickets to be able to buy the shoes, but soon realized that her mom had done something far more nefarious.
What is cerebral palsy?
It's estimated that over 17 million people around the globe have cerebral palsy, according to the Cerebral Palsy Foundation. This is a disability disorder that can affect a person's movements and posture, as well as cognitive development in some cases.
When the author returned home, she learned that rather than selling the Ed Sheeran tickets, her mother had sold her daughter's tickets to see My Chemical Romance for twice the price the author bought them for. The show was also sold out so there was no chance for the author to get more tickets. She was absolutely devastated, as she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to see them in concert again.
Upon learning that her mother had stolen from her for financial gain, the author packed her things and went over to her boyfriend's place, where his parents were more than happy for her to stay with them. The mother is now telling her she's being ‘unreasonable’ for leaving, and is making her look like a ‘bad mom’.
What do you think? Was the author fully within her right to move out of her mother's home at 17, considering her mom stole from her? Or does the author need to recognize that the mother is struggling to make ends meet, especially with the son's condition, and so the author should be more willing to help and contribute to the family?
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